Breaking down
by Hinata HyuUchiha
Summary: (Post Things change) It started from the moment he ran away from Murakami School and since then Beast Boy keeps loosing control. Until one mission takes a turn for the worse and some familiar face appears to destroy him. But it isn't the Beast. It's himself...and he has special plans for the changeling. Can he conquer his darker side?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Heartbreak

The words still rang in his ears as he rushed outside to meet up with Robin.

But part of him also wanted to escape those words and the surrounding he found himself in.

'Things change…'

He shoved the door of Murakami High school open and was faced with bright sunshine burning down on him and suddenly he felt a sudden urge to scream all his frustration at the sun that dared to smile so warmly upon him.

But he only bit his lip, trying to focus on the matter at hand – his team was in trouble.

Morphing into a dove, Beast Boy pushed everything that had happened just a moment ago out of his mind and took off into the air.

Or at least tried to.

It didn't take him long to find the location of his friends and returned to human form in front of an abandoned building.

Dust covered the first floor as it slowly escaped from the shattered windows.

"Where's the problem?" he asked, clenching his fists as a signal that he was ready to fight.

Robin approached the shape-shifter and the changeling noticed that he sustained minor wounds. "Not here," he answered bluntly, dusting himself off.

"What do you mean?"

"You took too long with whatever you were doing and that giant metal can just got bored and took off," Cyborg joined in and Beast Boy saw that he also seemed unharmed for most of the part.

"Metal can? So…was it a robot? Or maybe an android?" he asked curiously.

"Whatever it was…it managed to take us on," Raven said this time, having come up from behind an overturned car.

"And why are you guys just standing there?" the shape-shifter complained before a hand stopped him.

"It is already too late," Starfire said, shaking her head.

"We can still catch up to it! By the looks of it, it's still around somewhere," Beast Boy persisted as he moved away from Starfire's hand.

"No, Beast Boy. It escaped in the confusion of the dust," Raven said but the shape-shifter tried to convince his team one last time.

"So what? What villain didn't we catch that tried to escape?"

"This one!" Robin said loudly, indicating that there was no argument anymore and turned towards the T-car before the others followed their leader.

Beast Boy crossed his arms, unhappy at being ignored before he reluctantly followed. He felt his anger fading as the unnatural silence filled the T-car on the way back to the tower…until Robin spoke up.

"Can I ask you something Beast Boy?"

The changeling faced the seat of the Boy Wonder and as if sensing the motion, Robin continued.

"Where were you? It's…not like you to avoid any mission," he said, turning slightly towards the young titan.

With those words, the memories from this morning came back – and with it, all the anger that resulted from it.

"I…was busy," the green boy said slowly, wishing for the silence to fill the car again.

"What could have caused you to be too busy to answer your communicator?" Robin said in a low voice, as if he wasn't sure if it was alright to ask this question.

The face of a blonde-haired girl filled his vision as the horrid words that destroyed everything they had together haunted his mind again.

Things change…things change…

"Stop it."

The raven-haired girl next to him gave an intrigued glance at the shape-shifter, hearing him growl his dislike towards his leader's nosiness.

"I have to know what caused your absence when we needed you," Robin urged on and Beast Boy found himself looking away from his leader.

"I…don't know why you think it would have made any difference," the shape-shifter mumbled under his breath.

"It might not have made a difference mission-wise but at least we know that you still got our back."

"What makes you think that I haven't?"

"I don't think that…but you seemed off lately – like something's keeping you occupied."

"I'm fine."

"You don't sound like that to me," Robin said, his voice getting slightly softer but Beast Boy didn't catch on it.

"Then you gotta get your ears checked," he retorted and Cyborg decided to come to Robin's defense.

"We're worried about you, man."

"You're worrying about nothing. I told you I'm fine," he said, his voice rising only slightly before he glanced out of the window, hoping the scenery could change his mood.

Seeing that their words wouldn't get much out of the green titan, Cyborg and Robin exchanged worried glances for a moment.

Before they managed to say something that would no doubt worsen the changeling's mood, Raven intervened.

"It just takes some time. It wouldn't be wise if you keep barging in his business."

Beast Boy glanced at her from the window-pane…but no smile formed on his lips.

No. He frowned.

Did she know what had just happened?

Did she know that their friend had been brought back from oblivion only to obliterate herself?

Did she know that Terra just moved out of his life – and that no amount of time could bring her back?  
He pressed his forehead against the cool glass of the window-pane, hoping it was enough to cool his anger at least for a while.

Raven glanced at the shape-shifter in silent worry, hoping her words were not a lie.

After a few passing moments, the team arrived at the tower and had lunch, all of them eagerly devouring the strips of meat that Cyborg had prepared.

"I'm not that hungry. Cy, you can have my lunch," the changeling muttered and went to his room.

"You know tofu's not-"

The half-robot looked to Raven for support as his words were not fast enough to reach his friend's ears.

"He'll be fine. Just give him some space."

With that said, all resumed eating in silence.

Meanwhile the changeling was sprawled on his bed, his eyes staring at the ceiling.

It was strange that only some time ago he thought that he somehow got the respect he deserved – he thought he had finally gained Robin's approval.

But it seemed that even after saving most of the heroes' butts, he still had a long way to go – for Robin's and maybe even Mento's approval.

Ever since the all-out attack of the Brotherhood of Evil, he hasn't really heard anything from his team…and for a moment he wondered if their leader was too occupied to bother giving their former teammate a call.

He normally managed not to let his former team get on his mind…but after what happened today, he felt like he needed some kind of support.

So he sat up and pulled out his communicator, deciding to leave a message for Rita since she seemed the closest to him and awkwardly suggested for a meet up when things have calmed down on both their ends.

His eyes rested on the yellow device and he felt a mixture of sadness, anger and longing pull at him and he dropped the device carelessly onto his bed before getting up.

Hiding in his room wouldn't make things better and he took a deep breath, realizing he was starting to get hungry. And just as he turned away…he noticed a very familiar item on his table and stopped in his tracks.

It was the heart-shaped box he made for Terra.

The item that caused him to go on a date with her – the item that inevitably led to her betrayal and ultimately her petrification.

But what had suddenly made him boil with heated anger was the fact…that it was this item that she had dismissed with a disinterested 'it's cute' only yesterday.

He didn't realize that while the memories of yesterday replayed in his mind, he had stepped over to his table and grabbed the gift with a trembling hand.

How could she do this to him?

How could she pretend that she didn't remember anything when seeing the object that had started all they had shared?

And then her voice answered his question.

"The girl you want me to be is just a memory."

This was all there was left for him to snap – the push needed for him to let his emotions take control.

With a vicious cry he flung the damned object towards the opposite wall.

The silver box shattered the instant it hit the wall – and Beast Boy shattered with it.

"I hate you!" he screamed at the girl in his head before his eyes frantically searched his table again, pulling open drawers and flinging papers, comic books, and pencils off his table.

His eyes seemed to come to a stop, seeing that he found what he was looking for – a strip of film.

It wasn't just any strip of film, however – the beating in his chest doubled, seeing that on all photos that ran along the strip…he was displayed with a certain blonde-haired girl.

A girl that was just a memory…

And all feelings that had sparked between them at the amusement park were fake – he had loved a girl that in the end felt nothing for him.

He had been lied to – from the day she had returned after she had run away until her supposed 'memory loss.'

He snatched the strip from the table before he proceeded to rip it into shreds, strangely feeling Goosebumps run up and down his body, hearing the paper tear so easily in his almost shaking hands.

Clutching the ripped remains in his gloved hand, he proceeded to throw them out of the window, not even bothering to watch if they really dropped into the sea before his eyes locked on the last object of hatred.

He walked over to his bed and flipped over his pillow, grabbing a silver ornament before walking over to his window.

Taking a last glance at Terra's silver butterfly hairclip, he clutched it tightly, as if to crush it in his hand before swinging his arm, letting the hairclip fly out of the window – almost as if freeing a real butterfly from captivity.

Only this butterfly kept dropping into the sea.

Beast Boy clenched his teeth, imagining that girl's face hopefully for the last time. "Are you happy now?" he cried angrily.

"Beast Boy?"

The shape-shifter flinched and turned to see his team giving worried glances at him and he turned away, facing the shattered heart box on the floor.

"I'm fine," he mumbled, feeling something wet trail down his face.

But he knew he was as broken as the gift in front of him.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Mistrusted

Beast Boy was lucky that none of his friends noticed the tear that managed to escape his eye and they reluctantly left him alone, apparently buying his answer.

He let out a sigh.

On one hand, he was relieved that they stopped getting on his case but on the other hand, he felt…abandoned once again.

Like when Terra had betrayed them, when he had transformed into the Beast after his argument with Raven, when he had to defeat the Brotherhood of Evil on his own (except for his little team).

And now…Terra was one of them as well.

He squeezed his eyes shut; trying to avoid risking any more tears when suddenly his room was drowned in red, flashing lights as the crime alert blared.

And for a moment, he felt relief flooding through him. He would have never thought a day would come when he would be happy that villains even existed.

The changeling snatched the communicator from his bed and rushed to the common room and saw his team already rushing outside.

"Which villain is it this time?" he asked and Robin was the first one to turn back at him, slight surprise crossing his face.

Was it that surprising that he could talk?

"I've got a location – it's the Jump City sewage system."

"Please don't tell me we go down that dump," Beast Boy groaned, obviously not standing the intense stink with his sensitive nose.

"Too bad we have to," Robin replied, before opening a manhole and dropping down, followed by the others.

"Goodbye, sense of smell," Beast Boy muttered before dropping inside as well and landing with a splash on his feet.

"Do you know which villain we might have to encounter, Robin?" Starfire asked.

"We have to keep going! I got a signal a few 100 meters from here," he replied, his boots making splashing noises as he kept walking.

The changeling took the lead pretty soon as he morphed into a German Sheppard and he regretted his decision of morphing into something that had a more sensitive nose than himself and switched to a crow, relieved that he could avoid the stinky, contaminated water the others were still walking in.

After a few meters, the road forked into two and the changeling morphed back to himself.

"Now where?" he asked, finding himself impatiently waiting for his team to catch up to him.

"Take the left path. It's not far anymore," he heard Robin say as he morphed into a cheetah.

He felt his patience running thin and bolted ahead, his speed quickly increasing as he dashed through polluted water.

"Remind me to have a talk with him when we get back to the tower," Robin growled under his breath before breaking out in a run.

The green cheetah reached the next fork in another minute – this time having a choice of 3 paths.

The green cheetah morphed into a bloodhound, lifting its head and sniffing the air for a possible scent of the villain but the stink was too strong for his dog nose.

He was about to rely on pure luck before his eyes caught sight of a shadow at the far end of the tunnel on the very right.

Whatever it was…the villain must be big as the shadow indicated and Beast Boy wasted no time and hunted the villain in hound form.

Who was it?

Mammoth? Atlas?

Even in hound form, he managed to gulp, wondering if maybe even Mallah could be one of the candidates…but he would rather not think about the possibility of the Brotherhood of Evil somehow having escaped.

Emitting vicious barking sounds, the hound turned the corner, taking a large leap to bring down the villain who had been lurking just around the corner.

But his bark turned to a whimper as something big and hard hit him right into his snout, sending him flying back into the contaminated water.

The dog morphed back to human and Beast Boy slowly tried to recover from the sudden and painful shock.

"Still all bark and no bite I see."

Beast Boy's eyes snapped open, hearing that familiar and arrogant voice and Beast Boy wished he could return the hit he received tenfold.

He came face to face with Adonis who suddenly charged with another punch and Beast Boy guessed he changed his armor once again, seeing that his armor was now gold colored.

"Still thinking that your trashcans can save your butt I see," the changeling retorted before jumping back to avoid Adonis' punch but was taken by surprise as his leg suddenly caught him in the abdomen, causing him to fall backwards. "And you still fight dirty," the shape-shifter groaned, getting back up to see the armored teen upon him again. Only this time, Beast Boy morphed into a bull, deciding to charge head-on.

Adonis blocked the attack, grabbing onto his horns and swinging him against the wall. The bull vanished to be replaced by a gorilla and let his fists swing against Adonis' face before the armored villain blocked the second attack.

The teen sneered, leaning closer to him. "Where's the rest of your lousy band? I was looking forward to seeing them again," he taunted but Beast Boy wouldn't wait until they came.

He could take on Adonis himself!

Managing a surprise attack, the green gorilla managed to slam his weight against the villain's armor, causing him to topple over but Adonis turned the tables by using the momentum to throw the gorilla over his head.

Adonis approached the fallen hero as he morphed back from the hit. "And I thought you had improved since last time. Which brings me to my next point: How's your little friend holding up? Have you fed him properly?" Adonis sneered down at him and the changeling felt raging heat surge through him.

He was talking about the Beast.

"How did you escape?" Beast Boy growled, managing to get on his feet, remembering that Adonis was supposed to be still flash frozen.

"How many times have you attacked your friends until now? Please give me all the details," Adonis continued, completely ignoring the shape-shifter.

The green teen clenched his fists angrily, wishing he could smash his sneer from his face. "Answer my question, you excuse of a villain!" Beast Boy spat, his anger slowly getting the better of him.

"I see you take good care of him. I was worried for a second. Too bad you seem to ignore your friends…like Raven," he kept taunting.

"Shut up!" the changeling screamed, turning into a T-Rex and charging with a mighty roar.

Adonis managed to side-step the attack and took hold of the dinosaur's tail before swinging it away, causing it to slam against the wall, cracks forming on the impact.

The dinosaur retreated, leaving only the changeling lying in the dirty water.

"How about you give up superhero business, loser? Having that thing inside of you…only keeps you restrained. And I don't think the rest of your friends like your little pet," Adonis said with a smug expression and hovered above the changeling. "What's the use for power if you can't even control it?"

And once again the image of Terra spun in his mind…accompanied with Raven's words.

"It's not the thing inside you that makes you a monster but knowing when to let it out that makes you a man."

Beast Boy barely registered a hand grabbing his ankle and he let out an angered cry, before his foot was the first thing that tore through his suit, the rest of his body following quickly after.

In the blink of an eye, the Beast lashed out at Adonis, slashing through the suit and sending the villain flying backwards.

The green monster leaped to its feet and before Adonis had the chance to dodge, the furry giant slammed his large hands once again at the villain, lifting him from his lying position in the sewer, causing him to crash into the wall.

Adonis scrambled to his feet, aiming a punch at the ferocious beast but it merely took hold of the incoming arm and swung him towards the opposite wall.

Adonis voiced his pain before he tried to crawl away.

But a shadow loomed over him – the shadow of a monster.

"Beast Boy!"

The voice of his leader did nothing to stop the monster from approaching and in the next moment, black magic tried to tie him into place but the monster tried to move relentlessly.

Suddenly hands landed on his back before wrapping gently around him – Starfire's hands.

The Beast growled and broke through Raven's magic and with a powerful swing, managed to hit Starfire off him, causing her to collide with Raven.

"Stop it, Beast Boy! You don't want to hurt us," Robin called to the large animal, slowly pulling out explosive disks.

The eyes of the green monster went from one titan to the next and they all had the same expression – worry mixed with fear.

And he hated the fact…that part of him enjoyed seeing their reactions.

Another growl escaped him before Beast Boy managed to force the monster back in his cage somewhere deep within him and he took several deep breaths.

"T-thanks guys. I wouldn't know what I would-"

He saw that their expressions didn't change and he didn't manage to finish his apology.

He realized that they feared him.

"Where's our bad guy?" Cyborg asked after a moment of silence and Beast Boy realized that Adonis was not where he had seen him just moments ago.

He turned back to tell them of Adonis but again, his voice failed him.

They looked in silent confusion but the expression that caused his heart to drop was Robin's look…of mistrust.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Abandonment

"Adonis – he was here just a moment ago," the changeling said, before Robin looked at him in confusion.

"Adonis? But isn't he frozen along with the Brotherhood of Evil?" he asked, letting his disks disappear back into his belt.

"That's what I thought too," Beast Boy said before morphing into a dog again to try his luck picking up a scent…but except for the smell of sewage, there was no other smell present.

"Cyborg. Can you get a signal? My communicator can't detect anything," Robin ordered and the half-robot pressed a few buttons on his forearm but his frown answered the leader's question.

"I've got nothing."

"Raven?" the leader continued but even using magic provided to be useless.

"But he was here! I fought him!" Beast Boy complained, not believing that Adonis…had just vanished.

"We believe you! But all we can do is wait until we get more leads," Robin said and Beast Boy found himself suspicious of Robin's honesty in his words.

He didn't sound like he believed him fully…but maybe that was because of his disappointment at losing him.

Unhappy at having to wait before he could get back at Adonis, Beast Boy reluctantly followed the others back outside.

This day was just great – first he got dumped, then his own team was scared of him and now he had lost the chance to make Adonis pay for his arrogance!

They arrived back at the tower and Beast Boy finally managed to still his hungry stomach with his favorite dish before he dropped on the couch, deciding to spend his time on the only thing that might take his mind off the bad luck he was having – playing on the Gamestation.

But he soon got bored as he beat the game on the highest possible level and went to his room to read some comics to get a clear head.

But as soon as he entered, his eyes were drawn to the shattered box in the corner and he felt like he had been hit with a hammer on the head and hurried out of his room.

He wouldn't be able to stand his room for even one second!

The changeling stopped for a moment in front of Raven's room, hearing Robin's voice from within.

"I just don't want anything bad happen to our team," Robin's voice came from behind the door.

"Maybe…if we pretend nothing happened-"

"You know what almost happened, Raven. He attacked Starfire!"

Robin's loud voice that had cut off Raven sent a wave of anger through the shape-shifter.

He knew it was a close call…but he managed to control it.

"Maybe if I talk to him-"

"Talking doesn't work. Otherwise he wouldn't have lost it again," Robin spoke seriously and then there was short silence.

"I…know but maybe that'll distract him – calm him. Scolding him is not going to make it any better," Raven said and Robin sighed.

"I know…but I have to make sure that our team won't suffer."

"We'll just have to think of something."

Beast Boy stared at the door.

Think of something? By the way it sounded, it was as if they planned to lock him up in a cage or something but he slowly shook his head.

They were his friends – they would never do something like this.

Feeling slightly more assured with that thought, he went to the training room, deciding to train his shape-shifting abilities so he wouldn't risk making Robin's plans come true.

He started on the treadmill, morphing first into a Dalmatian before switching to an Antelope until he bolted through the last levels as a cheetah.

He had to be faster – fast enough so Adonis wouldn't know even what hit him the next time they would meet.

Next, he worked on his punches, practicing on the punching bag in human form first, each time trying to add more power to his swing before he turned into a kangaroo.

The punching bag's swings became stronger and Beast Boy purposefully imagined Adonis to be the bag to add more fuel.

Only, somewhere in his process of punching, Adonis suddenly gained a black and orange mask and Slade's voice filled the room.

"Let her go!"

The kangaroo vanished instantly to be replaced by a gorilla and with an angry growl, the giant monkey swung his hands with all his might and the heavy bag flew to the wall, the chain breaking like it was plastic instead.

The gorilla vanished and Beast Boy stared with a heaving chest at the bag like it was about to get up and attack him.

Before he could take out his anger further, a beeping sound from his communicator snapped him awake and he pulled it from his belt with a smile, thinking that Rita might have received his message.

But his hopes died, seeing that it was only another regular villain trying to rob a bank.

He ran to the common room, deciding to prove that he could be trusted – and he would make sure that he wouldn't lose his cool this time.

The green Titan arrived and saw his team about to leave through the door. "Didn't you guys forget someone?" he asked half-jokingly.

"Oh, Beast Boy," the leader turned to him with a smile. "Not really. You can actually sit this one out."

"What?" his voice turned high from the surprise in it.

"Rest assured. We will take care of Warp," Starfire said, smiling as well.

"I know you do but I want to part of the action," Beast Boy protested and moved past Robin before he placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I think you've had enough action for today. And besides, you seem like you got a few good blows on you," Raven said this time and the changeling chuckled.

"Are you kidding? Adonis didn't even touch me," he said stubbornly, stretching even to prove his point and ignored the pain that came up in his right arm.

He watched dumbfounded as they ignored his little performance and walked out of the door before Cyborg turned to him, being the last one present.

"Hey, at least you can finally beat my high score on the Gamestation."

With that, the door shut closed.

Yeah, right! They just wanted him in the tower so he wouldn't risk turning…into that monster again.

They still didn't trust him.

The young titan let out a scoff before going on the roof for some fresh air.

The wind felt good between his feathers as he flew a few laps around the tower and for a moment he managed to escape his troubling thoughts – like he had been released from an invisible cage.

He occasionally made a few twists and turns in the air before his communicator forced him back down to earth and he looked curiously at the screen.

And his eyes opened wide at the figure displayed on it.

"Good to see you, Beast Boy."

Meanwhile the Titans were still fighting Warp who had decided to use Chang's lab to complete his 'time reversal machine' that basically had the ability to reverse time for anyone who would have been shot long enough with its beam up to a point where he could make that person vanish from existence.

Raven managed to find an opening while Warp was avoiding one of Cyborg's beams.

"Azarath, Metrion,-"

She was taken by surprise when Warp turned around and hit her with a weaker version of his reversal beam and she landed on the floor as images of her past flashed from her eyes, starting with the fight from several hours ago when Beast Boy turned into the Beast and going backwards from then on.

For a moment she thought she was watching a movie backwards, nothing was odd…until images of her fight with her father appeared in her mind.

Everything was so clear, it almost hurt to remember.

Only when she came to her vision did she see a tiny difference.

She was still surrounded by fire and Trigon's voice still echoed in her head…but as she looked around to find a way out of this imaginary hell…she saw 2 red eyes glowing from beneath the fire.

And suddenly the beam stopped shooting as Starfire managed to shoot Warp with her laser.

Raven's eyes snapped open, the red eyes still in her mind. "Trigon!"

His footsteps carried through the silence as Beast Boy hurriedly passed the amusement park, trying to push away the memories that replayed in his mind.

He wanted to forget, to move on.

The blinking red light on his communicator led him to a warehouse in a dead end in the southern part of the city.

He broke down the large wooden door as a bull, expecting hostages greeting him tied up on the floor.

But it was empty.

"Is this a joke?" Beast Boy called out into the silence angrily.

He walked deeper into the hall, his eyes searching for either hostages or the villain.

"Are you here to mess with me again?" he repeated.

And then he heard footsteps approaching from behind and turned around, deciding to morph into a rhino to knock the villain back.

But before he could manage to do so, a fist slammed painfully into his stomach, causing him to trip slightly from the harsh impact.

This was followed by a hard punch to the face, causing him to fall onto the hard floor. Struggling to get up, the shape-shifter fixed his stare at the attacker and his eyes opened wide when seeing that it was the same one who called him here.

"Not at all, Beast Boy," Slade spoke with confidence as he approached the shape-shifter and said Titan felt his blood boil, remembering his last encounter with him.

With a cry of hatred, the shape-shifter charged at the masked villain, turning into a roaring lion and jumping him. But Slade ducked out of the way before grabbing the large cat by the tail and managed to throw him away in a half-circle.

The lion was replaced by a falcon that charged from above before turning into an elephant, prepared to crush him but Slade evaded once again, seeking cover in the shadows.

The elephant turned to a wolf, using his sense of smell to make out the location of the villain before charging to his right.

But only moments later, the wolf was kicked away, landing painfully onto the ground.

Beast Boy hated himself – for needing to rely on his team once again and he pulled out his communicator.

Before he could manage to even lift it however, Slade's boot crushed it, along with breaking the changeling's hand.

"Do you really think they will come to help you?"

Beast Boy glanced up at the voice, narrowing his eyes. "They…are my friends – of course they'll come."

"Of course. And that's the reason they don't trust you – that they fear you," Slade said as if he forgot to mention this.

"That's a lie!"

"Is it really? When was the last time Robin congratulated you on a good job?"

Silence.

Robin wasn't one that threw around compliments…but the look of mistrust from earlier today flashed in the changeling's mind.

"When was the last time your other friends asked about you?" Slade asked and the changeling's gaze went to the remains of his communicator.

If the Doom Patrol hadn't been captured by the Brotherhood of Evil…then he wouldn't even have seen them once ever since he quit his team.

And this realization hurt.

"How do you know-"

"I thought I made it obvious that I've got my eye on you."

Strangely, this statement fueled the changeling's anger even more and he lashed out once again, only to get shoved back onto the floor, Slade's boot pressed against the shape-shifter's head to keep him down.

"W-what…do you want from Terra?" Beast Boy spoke through clenched teeth.

"I guess I didn't make my message clear enough. Terra is not of my concern anymore."

From the corner of his eyes, Beast Boy saw that he pulled out a notebook and dropped it in front of him.

"But I can't say she is out of any danger. If you recite this spell that will grant me my flesh back…then Terra's school with stay intact," Slade spoke calmly as opposed to Beast Boy's thoughts that screamed at him to literally 'go in for the kill'.

"What have you done?"

"Nothing yet. But the bomb's ticking."

Beast Boy struggled to get up and almost succeeded when feeling the foot lifted from his face but his decision was nullified when the same foot collided with his stomach and the shape-shifter cringed from the pain.

"What is it going to be?"

The pain began to fade and the changeling tried to find a way out of Slade's grasp but the broken communicator told him that he couldn't call them even if he wanted to.

And suddenly he realized that his friends would never trust him again if they found out he had disobeyed their orders.

His team had left him alone.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Dangerous decision

There was a long silence in the warehouse as Slade let it sink in that the changeling had to make an important decision.

And he felt excitement run through him, watching the Titan's look of pure devastation. A look that was acquired through lots of pain and emotions that have been accumulated over the years yet could easily be described in one word.

It was hopelessness.

Beast Boy knew whatever his decision would be; it would in some way benefit Robin's arch-nemesis.

Slade moved closer, his shadow spreading over the changeling but the green hero hadn't moved yet – like he was still trying to understand the meaning of Slade's words.

"Is it that hard to decide? You can either refuse and watch as countless students will be obliterated in a tragic accident…or you can keep playing the hero to a girl who doesn't even know who you are," Slade spoke, slightly leaning closer.

Beast Boy slowly let his eyes wander towards the villain's face and Slade was intrigued to see a new emotion replace his hopelessness.

Determination spurred the shape-shifter to take action and with a large and sudden leap, Beast Boy slammed his head against Slade's mask, the impact strong enough to make Slade trip backwards.

"No!" the shape-shifter voiced his denial vehemently before charging as a ram towards him.

But deep down, he knew that the girl he met at school bared such a strikingly similar appearance to Terra that it was like a blow to his heart that her personality was the complete opposite – she had acted like a complete stranger!

He knew she might never want to acknowledge who he was, even less who she was!

The ram leaped at Slade, successfully knocking him to the ground but the villain got back up to block the second attack.

Slade was very pleased to see that he had such influence, dare he say even…control over the youngest Titan, seeing him get increasingly violent.

The ram turned to a Mamba, wrapping around Slade's arm before shooting forward with its mouth wide open. Slade acted quickly, letting thumb and index finger wrap around the mouth and avoiding the fangs before forcefully shutting its mouth and roughly pulling the wriggling snake off.

The snake turned to a bear, lifting its paw to strike but Slade ducked and sent his foot into its face, causing him to slam against the wall.

The bear turned to human after the air got knocked out of him but that didn't mean it took Beast Boy long to get back up on his feet.

"My, my, Beast Boy. Don't tell me you still have feelings for a girl who obviously has no interest in you. Or is it because you have some kind of point to prove – to your team?" Slade kept taunting him and he received the desired effect as the changeling charged with an animal-like growl towards him.

He decided to stop playing and get serious as he slowly pulled something out of his belt and held it out, unfazed at Beast Boy's approaching form.

The boy suddenly stopped like he had been frozen in place and stared wide-eyed at the object in Slade's gloved hand.

Images of him cringing in searing pain flashed in front of his eyes, almost feeling the pain cruising through him at this very moment.

The pain he experienced whenever Slade had activated the nanoscopic probes that they had been infested with.

In his hand, Slade held a trigger, his thumb resting gently on the red button – the trigger that could claim the life of a former friend.

Meanwhile the other Titans managed to surprise Warp when Starfire threatened to destroy the large time-reversal machine and Cyborg had enough time to destroy Warp's armor when his attention was on Starfire. And when he had been defeated, the Tamaranian proceeded to destroy Warp's invention anyway, causing curses to escape the villain.

Raven had already recovered somewhat from the hit she received and except feeling a bit weak in the knees, she was alright.

Robin walked over to the sorceress. "Are you ok?"

"I guess so. It was just a drawback," Raven muttered, pulling her hood a bit deeper into her face and Robin frowned at her. "What?" she asked somewhat annoyed, avoiding his gaze.

"When Warp shot you down, what did you see?"

"What was I supposed to see when hit with a time-machine-like laser? My past, that's all," she replied and turned away to go back to the tower until Robin's hand landed on her shoulder.

"I heard you say 'Trigon'."

Raven stopped but remained silent and waited for the hand to remove.

But it didn't.

"What did you see, Raven?" Robin asked, his hand briefly squeezing her shoulder and the half-demon realized that she couldn't hide anymore.

She turned to look at the 3 titans awaiting her answer, her eyes revealing a hint of fear – fear she hadn't felt in a long time. "Evil…"

"And…did it somehow have to do with…one of us?" Robin asked after a moment of silence.

She looked in curious confusion back at him. "Why are you asking that?"

And as an answer, Robin's eyes narrowed slightly. "Because I can't reach Beast Boy."

"I would think my options through if I were you," Slade's voice echoed through the warehouse and it sent chills running down the changeling's spine.

What options were left for him?

He would either sell his team out to their nemesis by granting the villain his life back or he would selfishly sell out innocent citizens of Jump City for his team.

Slade was surprised that Robin didn't let it slip that Slade was still alive, flesh and bone long restored, but he guessed it was more a decision in favor for himself than for his team. Maybe Robin even thought that his team might hinder him in his search for the masked villain – and Slade remembered the several instances that proved this point.

His eyes wandered back to the still unmoving figure in front of him and he felt a smirk forming beneath his mask, seeing that the shape-shifter's hands ( or at least the healthy one more or less) was shaking from the emotional strain he was put under.

"Time's up," Slade said coolly and moved to press onto the red button before Beast Boy shot out his hand.

"Wait! Don't-"

Slade watched as his gaze lowered for a moment, the disgust at himself apparently obvious.

"Don't…press the button. I…I'll do it!" he said and stared into Slade's mask and it was hard not to marvel at the young boy – the tears brimming in his eyes were proof that everything was going just as Slade had wanted it.

"You get your stupid spell," he repeated, louder this time as he shut his eyes to avoid crying in front of the madman.

The thumb removed from the red button.

"That's my boy!"

With heavy steps, Beast Boy walked over to the leather notebook and picked it up and right on the first page was the black writing.

Beast Boy's heart beat frantically in his chest and he clutched the notebook in an attempt to get a grip on himself – so much that his knuckles turned white.

Slade stepped closer to the boy, indirectly telling him to start reading and Beast Boy glanced away for a moment nervously.

"I'm not sure how to say this…but I think Raven is better at this spell stuff and all," he murmured.

"All I require is for you to read it aloud. No form of magic is needed to perform this spell," Slade answered, his finger hovering over the red button again.

Beast Boy got the hint, feeling the lump in his throat vanish instantly and with a silent 'I'm sorry' to his team, he began reciting.

"I call upon the dark lord,

To bring forth,

Freedom from all torment of this world,

A place of hate and hurt,

Remove all darkness from its heart and mind,

Leaving a cleansed soul behind,

No mortal shall surpass Lord's creation,

Be it even through self-destruction,

Through darkness, purification will draw near,

Existing to spread fear,

Rebirth shall become you – cold and cruel,

Only a pawn in Trigon's rule,

Let the cycle of life and death begin,

Through each and every ever committed sin,

Suffering will be the guide,

To death and life without light."

No more had he uttered the last line of the spell, he suddenly felt some strange force try to force his insides out – like someone was trying to suck the air out of him.

The changeling fell to the floor, his body twitching and shaking like he had been zapped with the Tower's electricity.

What was going on?

What was this painful load that seemed to suffocate him?

Beast Boy shut his eyes, somehow trying to use his powers to help him…but his body had long stopped obeying to his commands.

Only his voice seemed to respond to him as he kept screaming in pain until even his voice wouldn't listen to him anymore.

Slade watched the scene in front of him with increasing interest. His eye was glued to the shape-shifter as he continued to be subjected to spasms.

And eventually the seizures vanished as well, leaving Beast Boy numb and almost literally senseless. He couldn't hear, see and feel anything, his eyes open only to see black darkness staring back at him.

The strange force pulling him inside out finally vanished and the darkness in front of his eyes turned to a glaring, blinding white and the only feeling that remained in his body was that he felt…much lighter than before.

In that moment, he felt like half of him had just died.

Slade stepped closer to the unmoving boy, glazed eyes staring back at the mask.

The only indicator that Beast Boy was still alive was a weak moan that somehow had managed to pass his lips.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Pawn of darkness

This was much better than the nanobots he had used! He had waited for this sight for quite a while – ever since his death, Slade had tried to get back at Beast Boy for managing to make his apprentice turn against him. He had thought that his alliance with Trigon would have been sufficient in fulfilling this task while he tried to regain his physical form but unfortunately Raven had managed to break through her father's spell.

But he had been blind to see that his revenge lied within the shape-shifter all along and when he found out that Trigon had almost managed to visualize the destruction of Beast Boy, Slade had been trying to find out how to finish what Trigon failed to do.

That was until the Titans had been away to fight the Brotherhood of Evil and Slade had easy access to the Tower as he knew their security code and had taken a look at Raven's spell books.

Most of them were to no use of the villain until he noticed a chest under Raven's bed and with patience and some prior magical knowledge acquired from his alliance with her father, Slade managed to open it and find the leathered notebook that included this wonderful spell that proved to be better than anything Trigon had come up with.

Slade leaned closer to the shape-shifter, seeing no movement and not even hearing his breathing and the villain could barely hold back his excitement.

Had the hero really perished?

Slade chuckled at the lifeless body of the changeling. "As much as I appreciate your devotion to being a hero, I can't possibly risk letting the girl you think of as Terra have false memories," he spoke, waiting for the changeling to show a reaction.

But the eyes were unblinking.

Slade lifted the trigger in his hand, waving it in front of the changeling's eyes. "Any last words?"

The mouth remained shut and Slade let his thumb rest on the red button, deciding to destroy the girl that had destroyed him.

And just then, something slammed at him from behind knocking him to the ground, causing the trigger to fall from his hand.

Slade recovered quickly though and turned around to face his attacker but the attack came faster than eyes could have blinked.

The white light that had surrounded the shape-shifter began to fade and slowly but surely his senses came back. Blurred colors danced in front of his eyes and his fingers of his healthy hand were the first thing that moved, lightly twitching and slowly relieving the numbness of his arm.

The colors before his eyes became clearer and his ears registered…sizzling sounds.

The shape-shifter voiced his pain that was still in his system as he tried to get up, rolling gently to the side and propping himself on his arm before taking shaky breaths after failing to get air into his lungs for quite some time.

"W-what's…happening…?" he asked, his voice still throaty and weak.

But only the sizzling sounds in his ears answered him and Beast Boy blinked a few times before narrowing his eyes as if to clear his head.

But the sound was real.

The shape-shifter slowly and shakily lifted himself off the floor and stumbled backwards as soon as he tried to straighten up, causing him to lean against the wall behind him.

He felt like he had been riding a roller coaster upside down and for a moment, he shut his eyes to stop the hall from spinning. But it didn't help much.

Opening his eyes again, Beast Boy let his eyes wander around; trying to ignore his throbbing head but the hall seemed the same as it was when he first entered.

The sizzling sound caught his attention and he looked in that direction when he noticed blue sparks fly from a small device. With shaky steps, the shape-shifter made his way towards the small device and picked it up with shaky hands. And he let it drop with wide eyes.

The damage caused to the metallic object made it look like this object had been forced into the shredder after it had been continually hit on with a steel hammer. Blue sparks flew from the revealing internals, probably from damaged circuitry.

But what caused the shock was that the thing that received damage first - the black and orange mask from which only a small part above the robotic, red eye remained intact.

Slade was only a robot…and someone or something managed to destroy it when he couldn't.

Self-loathing spread through the shape-shifter, realizing that he still wasn't strong enough to protect anyone on his own – he was still too weak to beat Slade.

His eyes wandered around for the rest of the body and he quickly spotted it just a few feet away from the head. It was in a worse state, the metallic limbs having been viciously torn off and the body slashed open on some areas and some other parts of the body have simply been crushed.

This sight made him remember something and he spun around, trying to find the trigger for Slade's bombs. Seeing as his human eyes were not strong enough to see in the weak light, he tried shape-shifting into a cat and he would have cried out in joy if he could, seeing that morphing worked.

He made quick work of the warehouse, even switching to an eagle in hopes of finding the object faster…but whatever animal form he used, the trigger was missing.

He flew down to the ground when his eyes spotted the notebook lying face down not far from him. He morphed back to human and picked up the book when his eyes widened in confusion.

The pages were blank.

Beast Boy flipped the rest of the pages but the result was the same.

Was…he maybe dreaming all that had happened?

No, the notebook was there so it couldn't have been just a dream – he still felt the aftereffects of reading whatever spell had been in this leather covered notebook.

Deciding to find a way to figure out what just happened to him; the changeling clutched the notebook in his hand and left the warehouse.

Meanwhile the Titans have arrived back in their tower but because of Beast Boy's absence (and a fuming Robin) they were unable to get their deserved rest.

In Beast Boy's eyes they might have overreacted when they decided for him to stay in the tower, probably because he thought that they were worried about…him losing control of his green friend that resided inside him, but they (also) wanted to protect him.

And he rewarded them with the thing they tried to prevent and honestly, everyone felt a little mad that Beast Boy had just disobeyed them without telling them why.

And now it seemed that he was in trouble because of it.

The atmosphere was tense in the common room and everyone was doing something else in an attempt to lighten the mood, Starfire making a sandwich in the kitchen, Cyborg mindlessly zapping through the channels of the TV, Raven quietly eating waffles while reading a novel and Robin pacing around the room before staring out of the window.

Dark clouds hung in the sky and Robin felt his mood reach an all-time low as he tried to think of what had happened to Beast Boy.

And speaking of the devil, the shape-shifter came walking into the common room, visibly upset about something. He had sustained several bruises and his hand that hung loosely to his side wasn't hard to miss.

Robin turned around and almost automatically a frown formed on his face. "We need to talk."

Beast Boy narrowed his eyes at Robin. "I'm fine. Thanks for asking."

"Then let me ask you where you were," Robin ignored Beast Boy's indirect disagreement at a pep talk.

There was no way he would tell them he had fought Slade – and even had negotiated with him.

"I…was fighting the hive."

A little white lie – he wouldn't risk Robin become obsessive again by telling him that Slade had been active, even worse, had somehow joined forces with Trigon again.

"And then you just decided to read a book afterwards," Robin retorted, crossing his arms.

"What?"

Raven raised a curious eyebrow before her eyes landed on the leathered object in the changeling's hand. "Where did you find this?" she asked, pointing to said object.

"Oh," the changeling exclaimed, trying to find a good excuse so Robin will get off his case. "An old lady gave it to me when I got her cat down a tree," he said, hoping it made sense.

Unfortunately, Robin was not buying his story. "And I'm supposed to believe this? Then why didn't you tell us before you left?"

"Would you have let me go?" the shape-shifter asked and for a moment, Robin didn't speak.

"If you would have told us why."

"Then why don't you believe me now?"

Robin clenched his fists, angry at Beast Boy's ignorance. "Because you misused our trust," he said angrily and Beast Boy scoffed.

Him misusing their trust?

"Funny how I think it's just vice-versa, Robin," Beast Boy mumbled and turned away to get to his room.

Robin continued to glare at the shape-shifter but felt in no mood to stretch the argument, knowing his words would hit deaf ears.

Raven lowered her gaze, feeling a strange familiarity having seen the leathered notebook in Beast Boy's hand. It was a notebook that she associated with her dark past – with her father. And that's why she kept it in a sealed chest from ever being revealed to the world.

But since magic was required to open the chest, she doubted that it was the same book and reluctantly dismissed her suspicion.

And besides, the user of this spell contained in her notebook must have previously been under influence of her father's dark magic…and she had made sure that Jump City's destruction didn't affect them – she had after all given them her powers to protect themselves.

"Sometimes I wonder how you two can even stand in the same room together. You're acting like 5 year-olds," Raven said as she passed Robin and his glare was now directed at her. "You'll calm down," she said, ignoring the negative vibe directed at her and went to her room to finish reading her novel.

The tension in the tower finally vanished when all members of the Teen Titans were fast asleep. Only the changeling was still stirring in his bed as the lines of the spell he recited only some hours ago repeated in his head.

And the same suffocating feeling spread through him that had gripped him in the warehouse and as he struggled to fight the strange force invading his body, he heard a voice speak in his ear.

"No wonder Terra dumped you!"

The changeling woke up with a start and stumbled over to his window and opened it, causing a dove that sat on the ledge of his window to fly off.

He took several deep breaths, trying to calm his racing heart and ignore the voice that had muttered those words.

It was his own voice.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Initiation

The door of his room opened and Beast Boy spun around in fear.

"I know you called me creepy but that is not the same as being freaked out like that."

Beast Boy visibly sighed, seeing that it was Raven who raised a curious eyebrow at her teammate's behavior.

"I know I shouldn't ask but I'll do it anyways. Are you ok?"

The shape-shifter chuckled nervously. "Yeah. Just didn't know too much tofu is like coffee."

Raven was unimpressed with his attempt at a funny joke and approached the shape-shifter, gently lifting the arm with the broken hand.

"Uh…Raven?"

The half-demon noticed the confusion in the shape-shifter's voice but ignored it as her hand glowed purple and she placed it gently on his. Beast Boy flinched and bit his lip as his bones in his hand slowly began to mend.

Sometimes he really hated when Raven healed him.

And as he watched her glowing hand, he realized that he had an opportunity to ask about what happened to him and shifted slightly to get her attention.

"Raven? I wanted to ask you about the notebook that old lady gave me."

"What about it?" she asked, not looking away from her task.

"You know, the pages were blank."

Raven looked at him, almost annoyed. "So? It's a notebook. They are usually blank when new."

"Well, the thing is that- what's wrong?"

Raven had shifted her gaze from his face…to the window of his room. She stopped working on his hand and walked over to it…like she was sleepwalking.

The magic user stared out into the sea but except for a dove soaring in the distance there was nothing there.

And suddenly the red eyes from her vision appeared in her mind.

"Raven…"

With a fearful gasp, Raven stepped back as her father spoke her name and Beast Boy walked around to look at her. Her eyes were wide as she stared open-mouthed into the distance.

"Everything alright?" Beast Boy asked carefully and saw her clenching her fists and closing her eyes.

"Yeah. What did you want to tell me?" she said and turned to him.

It couldn't be her father! She had banished him from this world and with that thought, she managed to return to her controlled state.

Beast Boy lowered his gaze for a moment and laughed. "You know what? I was expecting at least a poem or so," he chuckled and Raven rolled her eyes at him.

"Too bad you can't write your own poetry. Maybe the old lady knew you weren't very deep," Raven mocked and Beast Boy frowned slightly at the insult before she moved past him. "And it would be nice to be thankful," she added before leaving his room and Beast Boy slowly moved his previously damaged hand and a small smile formed on his face when he could move it with almost no pain.

It wouldn't be right to pester Raven with his suspicion after seeing her…so on edge – even if it was for only a moment.

Maybe Slade had just beaten him unconscious and he had dreamt reading from the notebook. Maybe there had never been a spell and Slade just tried to mess with him.

And maybe…the Beast somehow finished Slade off and he just couldn't remember it.

His smile widened as he went back to bed.

Maybe there was never even a trigger…

Meanwhile a certain masked villain sat quietly in front of a large screen that showed images of the warehouse where all that was left of his android was a disembodied head and a torn body.

But he was more intrigued than surprised.

When Beast Boy had complied with his command and finished reading the spell, the screen had suddenly turned red briefly before he lost a signal. And when the picture was restored, all he was greeted with was his android's remains and Beast Boy searching for something – probably his trigger.

Yet, Slade wasn't mad. Beast Boy had done his part of the job and he was sure that this would make sure that Terra would never return.

But using one of Trigon's spells did make him wonder if maybe even he might be affected by it – especially after he had been betrayed by Raven's father.

Slade let his fingers drum gently on the table, deciding to make sure to prevent something like this from happening.

All he needed was the element of surprise.

Thunder and lightning penetrated the night sky of Jump City as its citizens lay fast asleep in their beds. A crow was the only thing that dared to venture through this dangerous sky as it flew over buildings, streets, and greenery.

Gently, it perched onto the gate of a particular building, its eyes peering through the windows and doors in search for a way inside. It didn't take long for it to find an entryway – there was an air vent at the left side of the building and the crow was replaced by a simple fly as it flew inside.

Once inside, the only indicator of a presence inside Murakami High school…was the steady footsteps echoing through the empty hallways.

The shape-shifter let out a loud yawn as he stretched his tired bones the next morning before he tumbled out of his bed, having slept close to the edge. After uttering a cry of surprise, the shape-shifter stood up and decided to have a non-tofu breakfast before his eyes rested on the heart-shaped box's remains.

A pang of guilt flooded him but he tried to ignore it as he gathered up the remains and dumped them in his trashcan before walking to the common room.

His team was present around the table while Cyborg was cooking something in the kitchen and Beast Boy tried to avoid Robin's eyes as he sat down by the table. He still felt sore after their argument and since he saw that he had no fault in it, he would only forgive Robin if he admitted that it was wrong of him to judge him so easily.

Cyborg joined them with fried eggs and bacon and Beast Boy scrunched up his nose in disgust. "Come on! It's not like your tofu tastes better," Cyborg said, seeing his best friend's expression.

"At least I don't have to kill innocent living things to fill my stomach," the changeling retorted.

"You know plants live too, right?" Raven said before taking a sip of her orange juice.

"You're not helping," Beast Boy growled, hearing Cyborg snicker next to him.

"I'm not trying to help. I'm trying to show you that we all take advantage of things in trying to get what we want."

"And?"

"And you're not better than Cyborg," Raven said and the shape-shifter visibly fumed at her words.

"But my choice of food is! It's much healthier than all that meat," Beast Boy said, emphasizing on the last word.

"No, it's not. It's important to have a balanced diet," Raven said, glancing for a moment at Cyborg who stopped grinning at once.

The changeling remained silent, having been satisfied with Cyborg's frown and finally started eating before he noticed that Robin had his gaze upon him. "What? Do I have something on my face?" the changeling asked confused and a bit annoyed, fearing another lecture coming.

"No. I…just wanted to tell you-"

Robin didn't finish his sentence as the crime alert beat him to it and they rushed towards the large screen of the mainframe computer.

A bank in the northern side of the city was displayed as people were lying on the floor with their hands on their heads. The only people that were standing were 5 certain villains known collectively as the HIVE 5.

"I thought you said you beat the HIVE yesterday?" Cyborg turned to Beast Boy and the changeling silently cursed the villains on the screen for having to rob a bank today.

"Uh…they escaped?"

Robin turned around, a stone hard expression on his face. "It doesn't matter now. All that matters is that we put them behind bars. Let's go!"

Beast Boy had to stop himself from sighing in relief. For a moment, he thought Robin was getting suspicious again and his mood lifted even further when he was told to join them when he had stayed behind to see if he was still part of the action.

Meanwhile a blonde-haired girl was walking along the streets and after a short while reached her school before she checked her watch.

7:50.

She had only ten minutes until class started and she hurriedly made her way to her locker to pick up her needed books.

She really wasn't looking forward to math class, especially since she had a test coming up next week and she hadn't been studying much. With a heavy sigh, she opened her locker door.

And her eyes opened in surprise.

On the backside of her locker door was black writing – painted to be precise.

The writing in itself wasn't something that touched her in any way – it was the memory behind it that left an impression behind.

She remembered a red sky, destroyed buildings…and a voice that told her that she was responsible for the dystopia she found herself in.

And when she had voiced her doubts since she couldn't remember anything about herself or her past, the voice told her to look behind herself. When she did so, she was faced with a pedestal, a sign leaning against it – as if she had been a national treasure or some kind of holy figure being worshipped.

And as she stared at the writing that was identical to the one before her now…she couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding spread through her.

It was the same writing that had changed her life.

'Terra

A Teen Titan

A true friend'


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Inner demon

Laughter filled her ears before a voice spoke to her.

"Blondie! Get a move on already," Amber said as she and Dionne approached her.

Terra quickly slammed her locker door shut after taking out her books, causing her friends to look at her in confusion.

"I never thought you hated Math that much. Take it easy on your poor locker," Dionne said and Terra would have laughed.

But after seeing that message, she didn't feel like laughing.

They arrived in the classroom just when the bell rang and the blonde-haired girl hurried to her seat, her friends sitting further in the back. She placed her heavy Math book on the table and sighed, not ready to have her mind tortured with numbers. And as she took her pencil out, letting her fingers gently wrap around it, like she was embracing it – embracing her life as a normal girl – her eyes rested on the corner of her table.

Scratch markings adorned the left corner of her table – small…but the message was bold. Only one word was carved into the wood and it unnerved and at the same time, angered the girl.

'Terra.'

Noon approached and 5 heroes finally managed to take down the HIVE members and rescue the hostages that were held captive in the bank.

"Good work, team," Robin congratulated his team before glancing at Beast Boy. "And…honestly, I was surprised you could take on Mammoth by yourself…with that broken hand," Robin said slowly.

The shape-shifter scratched his head nervously. "Well, Raven kinda helped out with that problem."

The police arrived and after giving a short report on the situation, the villains were sent with a van to jail.

"Let me prepare a Tamaranian dish of victory," Starfire beamed at them while doing a spin in the air but she only received nervous glances and headshakes instead.

"As much as I like your…meals, I think it's Cyborg's turn to cook," Robin said with a smile.

"But hasn't Cyborg already done the preparing of meals yesterday?" the alien asked confused before Raven interrupted before Starfire could find a way to enforce her alien food on them.

"His lunch will have mustard – lots and lots of mustard," she replied monotonously and Starfire smiled like she had been just complimented.

"I agree with this negotiation. It will certainly satisfy my as you would call it 'buds of taste'," Starfire said and for a moment, Raven felt annoyed by this statement.

There was no negotiation.

Finally, the heroes went homewards before Beast Boy's eyes rested on a shop – a bookshop. He glanced back to his team and stopped walking.

He never thought he would one day be willing to walk into a bookshop which wasn't part of a bet or after an argument. He didn't really read many books except comics…or maybe a few scientific textbooks when he was younger.

"Guys? I think I forgot something," he said and before he could turn away, a communicator dropped into his hands.

"Just make sure you'll be available," Robin said to him before they walked off, leaving a confused shape-shifter behind.

Could it be…that things were getting better?

"I will," he replied, not sure if they could hear him before he crossed the street and entered the small bookshop. His arrival was signaled with the sound of a ringing bell placed above the door. As he took in the rather cozy surrounding of a few shelves and some couches placed in the corner for quieter reading experience, his thoughts drifted to the events yesterday.

He wouldn't ask Raven to help him with his little problem. She still seemed to be recovering from the events with her father and if Beast Boy let it slip that Slade had been involved in any way, then Robin would lock himself up in the tower – along with him.

He slowly approached the salesclerk – a young dark-haired woman and wondered what he actually was looking for. And before he realized it, the young lady was already smiling at him, waiting to help him out.

"Uh…I'm looking for books about magic," he asked nervously and the lady gave a curious look at him.

"We don't have many that are interested in magic and dark arts so please excuse me if our collection is limited. Please take a look at the lowest section of the last shelf," she answered, her smile never leaving her face and the changeling felt oddly calmed by just looking at that smile.

He decided to try his luck and be more specific. "I'm actually looking for books about a certain spell. You know, there's this notebook that had a really freaky spell in it and the whole room turned dark and when I came back to being myself, the pages of the notebook were blank," he explained himself but the girl never lost her smile.

"I'm sorry but I have never heard of something like that before. Maybe taking a look at our collection might be more helpful," she replied, a light giggle escaping her mouth and for a moment, the shape-shifter thought she thought he was joking.

"Thanks, anyways," he smiled back before walking to said shelf and quickly skimming over the titles of the various old and leather-covered books.

But no matter how many books he opened, there was neither anything about a notebook with disappearing writing nor anything about an inter-dimensional demon named 'Trigon' to be found.

In most of these books, magic was talked about like it only existed in magic shows or fairytales. It wasn't taken seriously at all.

With a sigh, he closed the last book, causing a little dust to swirl from the book and with a lowered head; he walked out of the shop.

He looked with an arched eyebrow towards the sky, surprised that it was already sunset.

How long had he actually been inside that bookshop? That was a new record!

And as if on cue, his stomach reminded him that he didn't have exactly a filling breakfast. So he decided for a small stop at the pizza parlor, grinning to himself. He was avoiding possible alien brew from Starfire and Cyborg's horrible meat meal.

With a slightly lighter mood, Beast Boy went to the Pizza Parlor and ordered a Veggie Pizza which he devoured in mere minutes. And just then, his communicator began giving off a signal and with high hopes of it being Rita, he pulled it out of his belt.

But his smile faltered, seeing that it was only Robin. "Beast Boy, here. What's up?"

"It's Dr. Light. Meet us by the docks," Robin spoke through the device.

"I'll be right-"he stopped, seeing that his communicator gave off another signal before Adonis was displayed on the screen as he was together with Professor Chang, apparently discussing something. "Hey, I might be running a bit late. I found our little runaway," he smirked into his communicator and Robin's startled 'what?' was the last thing he managed to hear before ending transmission and running off towards the villain.

Payback time.

"How long will it take? I don't have all day," Adonis said annoyed as Chang appeared out of a steel door and fixed his gloves.

"Whine all you want. It won't make the process any faster. If you want a new armor, you have to wait," he said annoyed and Adonis growled at the small man.

"I'm tired of waiting. When is my suit ready?"

"When I'm done with my work. If you stop nagging, I'll have it done in a little while," he replied and disappeared into another door across the room.

Tapping his foot against the floor, Adonis silently fumed, impatient to get back at a certain shape-shifter when suddenly the startled cry of Chang came from behind the door.

Raising a confused eyebrow, Adonis stepped closer to the door. "Hey, Doc. Don't think I let you off the hook with your lame acting," he called but there was no answer.

Adonis waited to get an answer from the Professor but seeing as he wasn't going to get any; Adonis opened the door and walked further into the lab as his eyes ran over the various test tubes and machinery.

He wasn't really fond of labs – especially since he associated it with a certain incident of him being drenched in chemicals.

"Stop playing games!" he called annoyed to the Professor as he turned around the table and his eyes were drawn to the floor in front of him. "What the-"

His words were stuck in his throat as he stared at the unmoving body of Professor Chang. His lab suit was slashed through and part of his face was covered in a greenish substance, the skin having started to peel and part of his hair fallen off like someone had spilled some sort of chemical into his face.

Adonis took a step back. He would not wait for the suit to build itself.

"Still hiding in your rust bucket?"

Adonis felt almost relieved, hearing that voice but his relief suddenly turned to a pained expression as a sudden force smashed into him and sent him right into the wall.

Before he could make out the face of his attacker, his sight turned dark.

Meanwhile 4 Titans managed to gain the upper hand in their struggle against Dr. Light and Robin called Starfire to his side.

"Star, can you check on Beast Boy? I…don't feel safe letting him face off against Adonis on his own," Robin murmured, showing his location on his communicator.

Starfire looked equally worried and Robin handed her his grappling hook.

"If the situation gets out of hand, try shooting this at him…it might be enough to stun him. I had to use the tower's main power source to provide enough electricity," he said and gave a reassuring smile at her.

She nodded reluctantly and flew off.

Wings and feathers retreated and the bird turned to a green human as he dropped from a damaged window inside Chang's new lab. Green eyes wandered around the hall and over tables with containers and chemicals in search of the armored villain.

His eyes rested on a door that was swinging only slightly, fluorescent light filtering through the small space and the shape-shifter walked through the door with careful steps.

Another lab faced him and his eyes once again, roamed his surroundings…and they stopped when seeing the large dent in the wall opposite of him.

"Adonis," he called, being sure that this was his work as he approached the damaged wall.

And he stopped suddenly when seeing it was indeed Adonis – he was leaning against the wall, a large, red wound present beneath his torn suit. His suit was left damaged in a lot of places up to an extent where parts of the frail body was exposed, probably with broken bones. His eyes were closed but the shape-shifter called to him once again, worried. "Adonis?"

But the only answer he got was a sudden hit to his back and he flew against a table, knocking it over along with all the contents that had been on it.

Beast Boy slowly recovered from the hit and lifted his head before he heard a very familiar voice.

"Remember me?"

His eyes widened like he had been hit on the back of his head as he stared at the figure in front of him.

It was…him!


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Painful Past

Was he still dreaming – still trapped in some kind of nightmare made by Slade? Was he maybe even still fighting him?  
No, the pain from his little fall was still pounding inside of him.

So what was it that caused him to see this – to see himself sneering down at himself with red eyes that were full of mockery…and malice?

And with a barely audible gasp, it finally clicked as the painful images of his suffering in the warehouse replayed in his mind – as the strange force invaded him – and as his darker side flowed out.

All because of Slade's spell.

His hands clenched to fists, realizing that Slade had lied to him – that he had been set up. He felt the searing hatred for the masked villain reach new heights and he could hear himself growling his disgust for the masked villain…realizing that the spell had been for him all along.

"You…"

Laughter echoed through the lab and the shape-shifter narrowed his eyes at the figure in front of him. His own laughter freaked him out!

"It was about time! I thought I'd fall asleep," his counterpart sneered. "I can't believe you're so dense! It was so obvious from the spell itself what was going to happen to you."

Beast Boy didn't voice his opinion on that matter.

"Lighten up! At least Adonis will know when to keep his smelly mouth shut," his other side said, pointing to the fallen villain.

The green boy clenched his teeth, disgusted at the fact that his counterpart didn't even spare a villain from such a brutal treatment. "He didn't deserve this," he said and his other half raised a confused eyebrow.

"Don't tell me you switched sides. I don't think you were too happy when he kept kicking your butt."

"He wasn't. I almost-"

Beast Boy stopped himself. Why was he arguing with something that wasn't real?

"What's wrong? Did you realize yet that you couldn't have beaten him alone?"

Beast Boy slowly got up, the pain in his back slowly vanishing. From what he remembered, he wouldn't stand a chance against his evil counterpart.

But he knew a certain half-robot that could help him out and the changeling pulled out the communicator he had been given.

He heard a scoff and looked to the source to be faced with a mocking sneer.

"I thought you had changed when you got even with the Brotherhood of Evil. But I guess…some things never change," the grey figure spoke and Beast Boy narrowed his eyes.

"You have no idea how much. And I know that you're not worth the trouble," the shape-shifter countered and activated his device.

"Keep telling that to yourself. But you will always rely on someone else to save your butt."

"I'm not relying on anyone! That fight with the Brotherhood of Evil should have proved it. My fight with Adonis should have proved it," the changeling said, his voice getting slightly louder.

How he hated when he was being underestimated!

"Yeah, yeah," his evil spawn dismissed his words with a wave of his hand. "All I see is someone who needed random Titans to save his friends – someone who needed that little monster inside of him to beat the low-life villain Adonis."

"That was me!" the changeling retorted angrily, the communicator in his hand clutched tightly.

"Sure it was! Just like it was you…who stopped Terra from finishing you off," his evil self smirked tauntingly and Beast Boy's eyes open wide, a sudden surge of anger rushing through him.

"Stop wasting your breath," he said slowly, trying to pretend his words didn't touch him.

"What was it again?" he said, tapping his chin as if in thought. "It's your choice, Terra. It's never too late to change."

Those words drove a cold piece of ice through the young Titan's heart as Terra's voice repeated in his head – words that he indirectly imprinted in her mind.

"Things change, Beast Boy…"

"Aww. Still crying over the girl that dumped you," the grey changeling cooed and Beast Boy realized wet trails on his cheeks.

How could he have cried in front his own mind's manifestation of a nightmare?

"Face it! You never were strong enough to protect anyone – not the Titans, not Terra, and not the Doom Patrol. Maybe that's why they were glad you left their team…and wouldn't care to call you unless they need help from your friends," his own voice echoed through the lab and Beast Boy glanced at the yellow device, wondering if what he said was true.

What if the Doom Patrol…was really glad about his absence? Was that the reason they haven't contacted him in so long?

"That's not true!" he growled, not letting mere words shatter his resolve but the verbal torture was far from over.

"Are you that blind!? Mento only made you team member because he took pity on you. That's why Rita was the only one who came close to liking you. They felt sorry for you. Who wouldn't be when seeing a small boy without any parents, home and running from all sorts of bad guys that either try to kill him, sell him or lock him up like a caged animal?"

"Rita…doesn't think of me this way."

"And that's why she tried to contact you," the evil changeling mocked, visibly enjoying how his weaker self tried to deny something so obvious.

"They are just busy. They're heroes after all," Beast Boy reasoned but he only received amused chuckling in reply. "What?"

"So they were able to call you when they were in serious trouble with the Brain but can't even ask how you are when they're not fighting crime?"

Beast Boy frowned, feeling that his other self made some sense. "I'm a Titan now. The past doesn't matter," he replied, convincing himself that it wasn't them that broke the contact but rather him.

"Titan? Don't make me laugh! What kind of Titan are you that can't even be trusted!? Raven will never trust you ever since your little argument. Come to think of it, she never trusted you in the first place. And don't get me started on Robin."

Images of Robin's looming face as he demanded him to remember what had happened after his argument with Raven and threatening him with prison appeared in the changeling's mind.

And the respect he once held for his leader diminished with that thought.

"Seems like Terra wasn't the only one they didn't trust," came his voice and Beast Boy's anger caused him to grip the yellow device in his hand, like it was about to crack from the pressure.

"You know nothing about her or me!" he shouted angrily, restraining himself from blindly attacking.

"That's a good one!" he cackled. "News flash, friend. I am you! And let me tell you that calling your friends is not a good idea. Especially if Raven finds out that it was you who summoned me with a spell she kept in her room. You know she doesn't like it if you barge into her room uninvited."

Beast Boy's gaze lowered for a moment, remembering Raven's anxious expression from the night before as she had stared out his window. "I…was tricked by Slade," he said, hoping his statement didn't sound as weak as he felt it did.

"You weren't the only one. So were Robin and Terra. Even Raven managed to get on her feet and kick her dad's butt – and he was worse than all villains combined!"

He took a few steps forward, still not done delivering his message to the green changeling.

But from his troubled expression, he could tell that he was close.

"And unlike you, they didn't have to run to their friends for help. They acted like Titans and fought on their own," he said, his words seeming to linger in the air.

"I am a Titan!" he shouted with sudden passion and flung himself at his counterpart before he merely side-stepped.

"Says who? Your uniform – your communicator?" his dark self mocked, evading another flying fist before countering with a punch of his own, sending the changeling back to the floor but he quickly caught himself and was back on his feet. "Your appearance or gadgets don't make you a Titan. It's what you do that counts. And let me tell you that, on your own, you haven't accomplished much," he said, red eyes narrowing at the shape-shifter whose hand that held the yellow device began shaking in sheer anger.

A pleased grin spread onto the face of his darker self and he went in for the final blow.

"You will always be the weak one in the team."

The green teen bared his teeth, all self-control flying out of the window with that sentence. "I'll show you weak!" he growled, and in all his frustration, threw his communicator onto the ground before him, the sound of its shattering drowning out his vicious snarl as he leaped at his other half.

Once again, the grey changeling evaded a fist before Beast Boy turned into a tiger and swiped a paw at him. Seeing the attack coming, his other self turned into a hummingbird, evading by flying into the air. Beast Boy morphed into an eagle and gave chase. The hummingbird made a sharp turn to the left, sensing the eagle reaching out with its dangerous talons before morphing into a falcon to keep distance.

Beast Boy kept chasing the large bird for several laps around the hall, each time close to grasp its feathers only for it to slip away in the last moment.

The falcon dropped to the ground and the eagle followed just as fast, determined to dig its talons into the other's flesh.

Unfortunately, the falcon morphed into a wolf and immediately jumped the approaching eagle, sending it against the ground. It came to a stop by a table and the green animal was replaced by a roaring jaguar and charged at the approaching wolf, successfully knocking him onto the floor and pinning him down.

The large cat growled in anticipation, leaning closer to the canine.

How sorry he will be for calling him weak!

The jaguar pulled back slightly and opened its dangerous mouth, prepared to tear Trigon's spawn to shreds. Unfortunately, he gave some freedom when he pulled back and the wolf turned into a mighty gorilla and with a powerful swipe of his hands, the jaguar was thrown against a table, the force strong enough to break it.

The jaguar couldn't get up and morphed back into human, pain cruising to the boy's body. The changeling slowly opened his eyes, the room blurry for a moment but he ignored the tilting of the room in an attempt to get up.

Too bad the wolf was already on him before he could to do so, his teeth getting a good grip on his arm, the force of its leap bringing both of them down.

Mischief filled the dark changeling as the other uttered a cry of pain and just for fun, he let his jaws close further around the arm and he would have laughed, hearing the pained cry become louder.

Squeezing his eyes shut, the changeling on the floor tried to think of a way out of this dead-lock as the pain in his arm became increasingly unbearable.

"You will always be the weak one…weak one…weak…"

His eyes snapped open, his own taunting sending him into a fit of frenzy as he began morphing again. The wolf immediately let go and got off the small boy that began growing in size.

And before the wolf could make a run for it, the Beast sent his hands against the wolf with a roar, causing it to hit the wall with such force that it cracked.

The wolf turned back to the changeling and with some effort, he managed to get back on his feet. Readying himself to morph again, the dark shape-shifter stopped suddenly as a voice echoed through the hallways behind the door.

"Beast Boy? Are you in here?" Starfire's voice echoed through the surrounding.

But the Beast kept approaching nonetheless and the changeling sneered like he remembered something funny.

"This is what I'm talking about. You will always rely on someone…because alone you're nothing but weak," he said before the Beast lashed out with a large leap.

But the dark changeling evaded by morphing into a crow and flew out of an open window above him, barely evading the fists that shattered the glass.

The door opened and Starfire let out a gasp, seeing the Beast turning to look at her with such hatred, it was frightening.

Her eyes widened when seeing the unmoving bodies of Adonis and Professor Chang, her eyes glued to the red stain on both of their bodies.

They might be villains…but this time, their friend had gone too far!

Sudden realization hit the boy beneath the monster as Starfire pulled out Robin's grappling hook and aimed it at him. With some effort, the boy managed to make the monster retreat and he looked at the alien with apologetic eyes. "Star, it's me! I haven't done this! It was-"

"It's…for your own good," she replied, no emotion present in her voice and Beast Boy realized that this time, words wouldn't help him out.

Morphing into a dove, Beast Boy escaped through the broken window before Starfire could shoot.

And with horror, he realized that his evil self wasn't so wrong about his team.

Maybe even about himself too?


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Concealment

Starfire stared with sad eyes towards the window the changeling had just escaped through.

Her communicator got her attention.

"Star. What's the situation?" Robin spoke and Starfire felt a pang of guilt through her.

"Robin. I…I could not do it," she murmured and lowered the grappling hook.

Meanwhile the green bird had long vanished as Beast Boy sped across the street, his previous image of friends – of family shattered in his mind.

After he failed to gain respect – appreciation from Mento he thought he had finally found people who saw him as their equal – as their friend.

But that was before Starfire had aimed at him to purposefully hurt him – and he was sure that this was Robin's idea.

Tears made their way to the changeling's eyes and he shut his eyes to force them back. But this only brought back his own voice as he stated what he had tried so hard to deny.

The Doom Patrol wasn't his family and the Titans weren't his friends.

And he could almost hear his own voice whisper words that would finally shatter his weak image. "They are your enemies…"

And for a moment, he nearly held onto those words before another face prevented him from doing so and Beast Boy glanced at a particular building he was passing.

Terra might have been their enemy but his friends still believed in her and thus, she changed.

So if he believed strongly enough…then his friends might still stay his friends.

If only, it wouldn't be so hard…

Meanwhile 3 girls were walking on the side-walk as they have exited the Jump City Library. The 3 girls thought it a good idea to study for the approaching exams there and were agreeing to stay up a bit late.

"We should really have packed something to eat," Amber said groaning slightly. "I'm starving! I could eat an elephant!" she giggled and Dionne frowned playfully at her.

"Yeah, but would you? I'd just settle for a simple sandwich. Unless Math genius wants pizza," she smirked, referring to Terra.

But the girl in the back was too absorbed in her own thoughts to notice.

"Hey, you alright?" Dionne asked confused and Terra looked confused back.

"Yeah…I was just thinking about something," she mumbled, trying to ignore what she had seen this morning.

"How can you still think…after torturing your brain with numbers?" Amber asked stunned and Terra managed a light giggle.

"I honestly don't know."

"Maybe because you didn't know a lot of the questions you were supposed to solve?" Dionne teased and Terra smiled at them.

They sometimes really knew how to cheer her up!

They arrived at a crossroad and Dionne and Amber parted from her, waving goodbye.

"Let's see if you can at least count sheep," Amber called.

"I'd rather count the number of elephants you manage to eat," Terra retorted before turning her back on them.

A crow cawed into the silence as it sat on a light post and Amber turned to it. "What are you laughing at?" she asked annoyed before they continued in the opposite direction, the crow taking off shortly afterwards.

"Do you know…what's gotten into her? She seems so off lately," Dionne asked after they had walked some distance, giving a short glance over her shoulder.

Amber shrugged her shoulders, following her gaze. "It wasn't hard to notice. Maybe it is that green guy again," she wondered and Dionne looked at her friend in surprise.

"You mean he's still looking for her? I thought he'd given up since he hadn't shown up for a few days," the dark-haired girl said, rubbing her arms slightly. "But if that's true, then I can't blame her."

"Please don't tell me you're getting paranoid."

"You brought it up."

"And now you somehow have a bond with her or what?"

Dionne slowly turned back to look ahead. "I think I know how freaky it must be to be stalked," she murmured and Amber looked back once again.

"I sometimes really don't get you," she said, seeing that the street was deserted.

Night fell upon Jump City and things almost returned to normal in the Tower – except that ever since the arrival of 4 of the Titans, a certain changeling refused to come out of his room and Starfire felt a pang of guilt flow through her.

"You did what you had to do," Robin told her and placed a hand on her shoulder, seeing her upset.

"He is our friend, Robin. I couldn't do this to him," Starfire said, slowly shaking her head.

"Then why did he attack Adonis and Professor Chang in such a…horrible way? I…can't imagine Beast Boy doing something like this…unless he wasn't entirely himself when he did that," Robin said, crossing his arms.

"I cannot believe it was him that did the injustice to the two villains," Starfire said with a lowered head.

"But…after seeing him previously trying to pound on Adonis…it wouldn't be impossible that he just lost his cool and took out his anger on both of them," Raven murmured and turned towards Robin with an anxious expression. "I…have to talk to him. This has to stop!"

But Robin beat her to it as he walked past her. "Words won't work on him anymore. He wouldn't even contact us or answer his communicator anymore," he growled and the Boy Wonder stopped in front of the changeling's room.

"I'm not sure if this is the way you're supposed to go about this," Raven said a bit unsurely.

"You save that for when he sees his mistake," Robin said and entered the room before Raven could talk him out of it.

"Beast Boy!" Robin said commandingly.

The shape-shifter turned in his bed and Robin felt his anger rising.

How could he sleep when he had once again left the team alone to go after his own selfish needs – to go after Adonis and beat him mercilessly out of revenge?

"Would you mind explaining yourself why you didn't answer my call on your communicator?" Robin said, the anger evident in each word he said.

But Beast Boy didn't seem to be intimidated by it. "It was broken."

"And would you care to tell me why you didn't wait for me to give you permission for you to go after Adonis by yourself?"

The shape-shifter got off the bed, in the hopes that this conversation would be over soon. "Why did I have to tell you? Because you think I'm too weak to handle it myself?" he murmured and looked away, realizing what he had just said.

But part of him wanted to get that off his chest – he didn't want his team to think that they had to protect him all the time.

"On the contrary Beast Boy, I think that sometimes…you can be dangerous – for yourself and for others," Robin replied…and for a moment, Beast Boy thought he heard a hint of fear leak into his leader's voice.

But this time…it angered him.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked, crossing his hands over his chest, the words of his darker self repeating in his mind but he tried to believe that those words were wrong.

'They don't trust you.'

"The hospitalized Adonis and Chang could answer that for you," he replied and Beast Boy found himself clenching his hands. "Listen, Robin! I know it sounds unbelievable but I haven't done anything to them!"

"Starfire told me something different."

Beast Boy glanced at Starfire and she lowered her gaze, unable to look at him in the eyes. "You have to believe me! It wasn't-"

The changeling stopped, realizing that he couldn't possibly tell them who did this – because in a way, it was himself.

"Stop hiding from the obvious! Just tell me what exactly happened," Robin demanded and the changeling shut his eyes, not wanting to let Slade's or Trigon's name slip into this argument.

Raven glanced at Robin after he had demanded the truth.

Truth – something she had hidden from them for a long time. And now, even after her father's defeat, she still had trouble truly opening up to her friends.

All because of that notebook she found after being reverted to a small child. But seeing the escalating situation between Robin and Beast Boy, she realized something.

She had to come clean!

And as her eyes rested on the shape-shifter, she remembered that strange vision and Trigon's voice as he uttered her name.

Could it be that-?

"Robin?" she called slowly and at first, Robin didn't move, still waiting for an answer. "When I got hit by Warp's laser…I saw a vision of my father," she murmured and both boys looked at her in surprise.

"What?"

Raven took Robin's hand and managed to drag him out of Beast Boy's room followed by the others.

Except for the changeling. His heart in his chest kept beating a mile a minute, almost knowing what Raven wanted to show them.

Reaching under a pile of clothes in his closet, he pulled out the leathered notebook, its pages still blank.

He couldn't let them find out – he had to hide the fact that he had summoned a spawn of Trigon to earth.

Before he could think of what to do, his hands had already started ripping the pages of the notebook into tiny pieces. He couldn't care less about the consequences of what would happen once he destroyed the book – the writing wasn't going to come back.

"Raven?" the leader asked confused as she closed the door of her room. "Why did you bring me here? What does it have to do with Trigon?" he asked, hopefully not as rude as he felt it was.

"Just wait," she replied and pulled out a small chest from under her bed.

It had no lock but the lid seemed to have been tightly sealed.

"After I had returned to a child, I found this chest, the lid already open to reveal me a leathered notebook. I could sense magic coming from this notebook and once I saw the spell it contained, I realized that I had to hide it from the wrong hands."  
"So you came to show us a notebook?" Cyborg asked confused before Raven's hand glowed dark and she muttered a spell different from her usual chant.

"I came to tell you that I think my vision has to do with this notebook," she said before the lid sprang open like an invisible hand had been pulling it open. "And what scares me…is the fact that I've seen Beast Boy with a similar notebook 2 days ago," she said with a hint of fear before she peeked inside the chest.

But only a shocked gasp escaped her.

The chest was empty.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Fear

"Raven? What's wrong?" Robin asked the dark Titan but Raven didn't answer.

The notebook was gone!

But how?

Beast Boy didn't know anything about magic so how did he manage to open the chest?

"It's…gone," she muttered and she could feel the confused stares drill holes into her back.

"Gone?" Cyborg asked and moved closer to see for himself but Raven whipped around, passing the boys without a second glance and hurriedly stepped into the changeling's room, anger and fear evident in her tone as she called his name.

But all that greeted her was an open window, a gently breeze ventilating the room.

"Seems like we found ourselves a suspect," Cyborg said and looked out the window. "If he wanted us not to find out, he could have at least not made it so obvious," he said, shaking his head.

"What kind of spell was it?" Robin asked carefully and Raven turned to look at her leader with eyes so fearful, it scared him.

"I don't know. But knowing my father…it's something dangerous," she said in a low voice before her voice suddenly grew louder, urgent. "That's why we have to find Beast Boy as soon as possible – before he can use the notebook."

"But why haven't you just destroyed it?" Starfire asked, joining the others by the window.

Raven faced the dark sky and her expression turned solemn. "It's because…I couldn't."

With that, she floated out of the window before the others followed, Starfire lifting Cyborg and Robin using his grappling hook to aid him.

For a moment, the room was in complete silence, only the wind stirring in its surrounding. But shortly after, a small fly flew out of the partially open closet before a familiar green boy replaced it.

The changeling slowly stepped over to the window, the wind cold and stinging on his skin. His expression turned solemn as yet another sentence of his other half turned out to be true.

His team didn't believe him – they only believed what they thought they knew. And all they knew was that Beast Boy was untrusting and dangerous.

His eyes lowered to his ripped sleeve of his suit, the bite markings still visible with patches of red peeking from beneath it. And with a sinking feeling in his heart, he realized that his team was so caught up by what Beast Boy had apparently done that they completely neglected his well-being.

It was like he himself didn't matter anymore – only what he did for the team – only what his role as a Titan was.

And his grip on his belief in the good of his friends slipped – if only a little.

The Titan gave out a tired sigh, stepping out of his room as he was not in the mood for another interrogation and morphed into a rat as he scurried out of the tower.

Maybe some fresh air might lift his spirits and clear his head.

Somewhere in an abandoned street where traffic had ceased to be since several hours ago, a small Persian cat trotted through. It was light on its feet and its ears perked up at the few sounds that managed to shatter the silence of the night – leaves rustling, dogs barking, or even bells of the few shops that were still open. The cat moved into the shade of a tree before a crow moved out of it, taking off lazily into the sky.

The cold, speeding wind did nothing to stop the crow from flying as it almost effortlessly glided forward, its eyes on the lookout for any sign of unusual activity.

He had been getting bored and he wouldn't mind to have some real fun again.

Soon the bird reached its destination – Titans Tower and it dropped down onto the window ledge of the only open window. Sharp eyes peered inside and the bird entered once it realized that nobody was inside.

The bird vanished to be replaced by a cockroach and carefully it scurried out of the room, making sure to not attract too much attention.

He really didn't want to face the others yet but he was surprised it was so quiet.

Did they always sleep this early? What time was it anyways?

Pushing those interrupting thoughts aside, he focused on the task at hand and continued until he reached the mainframe computer of the Tower.

The cockroach stopped at the foot of the large machine as its lights blinked intriguingly in colors of red and blue – like it was inviting him to just test it out.

But he wouldn't just test it – he had much bigger plans in mind.

The cockroach vanished and red eyes narrowed in concentration at the large screen. And just then, blaring alarms and red light filled the room as the words. 'Intruder alert!' flashed across the large screen.

The grey figure silently cursed under his breath, angered to find out it activated once he morphed out of his animal forms. His fingers quickly moved over the virtual keyboard displayed on the table in front of him as he typed in the security code in order to deactivate it.

"Access denied!"

The titan raised a curious eyebrow, hearing that sentence coming from the speaker and half of him…was intrigued. "Come on, Cyborg! Don't tell me you forgot to keep me updated on our towers security," he mocked as if the half-robot was really present.

Seems like his friends had some real issues with him.

But it didn't matter. The others weren't present as it seemed and there was always other ways to shut this thing down.

Cyborg should really call the pest control once in a while.

The Titan morphed into an ant, crawling up on the table before disappearing into a small space where the cooling fan of the computer was located. Being surrounded by cables, circuits and sensitive hardware, the Titan morphed now into a small mouse and started gnawing on several of the cables and damaging sensitive and vital circuitry.

He was relieved when the blaring alarms suddenly turned off after he had bitten through a red and a black cable.

Deciding that he had done enough damage, the mouse turned once again into an ant and crawled out of the system before morphing back into human form.

He gave one last glance at the computer and he felt excitement running through him, seeing that the screen once again turned to normal like it was when he had first entered. Now the real fun could begin!

With steady strides, the changeling walked towards the first room – Robin's room.

But his pleased expression turned to surprise when he saw that out of the opening door…Sladebots started charging.

The dark changeling ducked out of the way of a fist before morphing into a Rhino and knocking the robot into another approaching one, the force strong enough to send both of them slamming against the wall. Unfortunately 2 others jumped him while one tried to pull him by the tail.

How embarrassing!

The rhino vanished to be replaced by an outrageous elephant before it slammed one of the bots away with a swipe of its trunk and simply crushed the other one with the same trunk, breaking it in half.

The elephant vanished and the Sladebot lost the grip on the tail as a grey dove flew into the air before taking a dive as a falcon, its talons engraving a scratch on the face before a T-Rex crushed its head as it tried to get up from the floor due to the hit.

"Why do you have to send your trash to come and fetch me? Let's talk face to face," the changeling said before evading another robot and countering with a simple uppercut, making it land on the pile of the other losers.

A smirk played on his face as the thought of a scared Slade filled his mind. But then again, who wouldn't when faced with a dark being summoned by one of Trigon's spells?

"Don't tell me big, bad Slade is scared of little, old me?" he said, folding his hands like a little child would do when begging for a lollipop.

Hearing another android approaching, the shape-shifter merely side-stepped a few times as the robot tried to aim a hit at him.

He felt triumph fill him from head to toe, seeing that this was apparently the last one of Slade's minions before blocking an incoming punch with his palm. "I'm flattered."

The boy vanished to become a snake, wrapping around the arm as it coiled ever tightly before the arm completely broke off because of the pressure. He let his jaws close around the other arm before the android toppled over. It didn't take long until the other arm was gone too and the snake was replaced by the dark boy once again.

He let his foot rest on the android's face before he decided to be serious. "Let's cut the small talk. Why are you here? Let me guess: It's probably because of that trigger – or is it maybe…Trigon's spell you're looking for?" he said, purposefully stretching the last part.

How he wished he could see Slade's face – or at least the surprise in his eye!

The pressure on the robot's head increased slightly, cracking sounds coming from beneath the changeling's foot as a few blue sparks shot from the head. The changeling leaned closer to the minion. "Too bad you came for nothing. That notebook can't be destroyed. Seems like Raven has some secrets you don't even know," he sneered, being sure he had left a lasting impression on the masked villain. "Until next time, Slade," he spoke with confidence before his foot closed the gap between it and the floor, making metal scraps appear under it.

Finally he could finish what he started!

Another morning brought sunshine to Jump City and a certain blonde-haired girl sat in her seat, the glaring sunshine heating up her back as her back faced the window. Occasionally, she would steal glances at the clock as her anxiety grew.

It was unusual for them to be late.

And just as she glanced away from the clock, there was a knocking sound and Terra's eyes widened when seeing who it was that apologized to the teacher before sitting in her seat.

Luckily, the teacher had to make a run to the principal and Terra immediately turned to Amber, her eyes taking in her black eye and her hand that was bandaged. "What happened?" she asked, the worry obvious in her otherwise composed voice.

Amber's usual smile and cheery attitude vanished as she glanced away before she murmured her answer. "Dionne…got hit by a car."

"What? How?" Terra honestly didn't expect that.

"I…don't know. Something pushed us from behind and I managed to land on the sidewalk but since Dionne was a bit ahead of me…she…landed on the street and she was about to get up but-"she trailed off and bit her lip.

"And what about you? Your eye-"

"When I turned around to see who it was…someone hit me and decided to just crush my hand while he was at it," she mumbled as her voice started cracking.

"Couldn't you see who it was?" Terra asked with a raised eyebrow.

Now Amber looked away, closing her eyes for a minute and Terra was getting anxious, sensing that she hid something.

"Who was it?"

Amber looked at her with fearful eyes. "He had his foot on my face but I could hear him say: 'Make sure she will remember'".

Terra noticed the troubled expression on her face but she said something that made Terra's heart almost skip a beat.

"I heard his voice. It was…that green guy that kept looking for you."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Isolation

"Who?" she asked, well aware of whom she meant but she hoped she hadn't heard her.

"You know who! That guy who is a hero. What was his name again?"

"You mean…Beast Boy?"

It felt strange to say his name – like she had known him for a long time…and yet, being a complete stranger.

Amber nodded and Terra frowned.

"He's…a hero. Why would you think it was him?" she asked skeptical and Amber was now the one frowning.

"How should I know? But I know it was him!" she said, her voice getting a bit louder.

Terra lowered her glance, taking in her friend's words…but how could she believe this – how could she when that same boy had practically begged her to come back to join his superhero team? She gave out a tired sigh and the red-head gave a curious glance at her.

"Nevermind. How…is Dionne?" she asked, not wanting to come to conclusions and instead, focused her attention on her friend.

And she saw the worry in her eyes and Terra almost felt sorry for asking. "She's…unconscious. I think she has a concussion."

A gasp escaped the blonde-haired girl, hearing that Dionne was worse off than she had thought.

"How long…does she need to stay hospitalized?"

"She'll stay for quite a while. At least until she comes out of unconsciousness and she'll most probably stay there for a few days once she does depending on how bad her concussion is."

The teacher came back from her trip, reading once again from the textbook on her desk but Terra's thoughts drowned out her voice as one question spun in her mind over and over again.

Was it really Beast Boy?

Meanwhile the leader of the Teen Titans paced nervously around the common room, hands folded behind his back. He was furious!

"Hey, Rob. Your breakfast isn't going to finish by itself," Cyborg called, pointing to the plate filled with waffles and pancakes.

Robin ignored him. How could they eat, knowing Beast Boy left the tower vulnerable to intruders – at least the ones that could possibly get by their security system – villains like Slade?

"I'm not hungry," he replied, not even facing the half-robot.

"Please, Robin. You look very pale," Starfire tried convincing him, knowing that he was becoming increasingly broody.

"I'm fine."

Raven sighed, realizing that he had gone too far into his 'obsessive' state already but didn't dare to say something. He will cool off eventually.

She was actually surprised that he had given up the search for Beast Boy after 2 hours and returned back to the tower last night. Maybe the drowsiness was finally getting to him but for once, she was the one that had trouble getting back to sleep and not Robin.

How could she, knowing that the changeling held a potentially disastrous spell in his hands?

But she managed to check his room only twice, and both times, the shape-shifter hadn't returned before sleep took the better of her.

Footsteps brought her out of her thoughts and she looked up from her cup of tea to see the shape shifter walking slowly past her leader before dropping beside Starfire by the table and picking up a fork to scoop up some pancakes.

Raven opened her mouth to invite Robin to eat pancakes as well before he spoke first.

"Raven has something to tell you," he said, his back still facing them and the half-demon looked at her leader in surprise before realizing what he meant.

"That notebook the old lady gave you – can I see it?" she asked and the shape-shifter felt like the fork in his hand had just stabbed him instead of his pancakes.

He knew they would ask him about it when they had left his room in the middle of Robin's rant last night but he didn't think they'd ask him directly – and not this early in the morning.

Not looking away from his breakfast, he decided to play it safe. "I don't have it anymore."

"What?" both Raven and Robin's voices spoke at the same time.

"Where is it?" the half-demon asked, her voice rising slightly.

"I…must have lost it when I fought Adonis," he mumbled, hoping that story was believable.

"You took that notebook with you?" Cyborg asked skeptically, shoving a big piece of pancake into his mouth.

"Hey, I thought I could get some writing done," Beast Boy retorted a bit angrily.

"That is the most ridiculous story I have ever heard! You have to tell me where it is – otherwise we will be in serious trouble," Raven said, narrowing her eyes to bring her point across.

And suddenly, Beast Boy realized that he had a chance to finally find out how to reverse the spell – maybe he could fix this without them ever knowing that he had messed up!

"Don't tell me that notebook is cursed," he mocked, pretending to shiver from fear.

Raven looked away for a moment, and the shame in her expression was slowly making itself obvious. "For once, you're right. I…just don't know what this curse does," she mumbled and Beast Boy's hope was shattered with that sentence.

She didn't know? But it was her father's work – and she had defeated him!

"What do you mean 'I don't know'?" the changeling asked unbelievably.

"I mean I have never encountered this spell before and that's why we have to get the book back before someone who did finds it," she said, staring at the changeling seriously.

Seems like Beast Boy had to keep up the game. "And I told you that I lost it. I didn't even know it was a spell book!"

"Did…Slade know it was a spell book?"

Heads turned surprised to their leader before he turned to face them, eyes narrowed.

"When we came back after looking for you, I found several beaten Sladebots in my room. So I know you fought him. Was Slade after the notebook, Beast Boy?"

The green boy just gaped at him for a moment.

"Slade? How…would he know we even had it?" Raven asked, not liking the idea of Slade having the notebook in his grasp. Who knows what he would use it for?

"I'm not sure how but I know that someone must have let him in. And your open window was the way in."

Beast Boy remained silent, trying to decide what to do. Should he keep quiet or tell them the truth?

The trigger was still missing and Slade could have already gotten it back from whoever managed to destroy his robot lookalike when another question invaded his thoughts.

Could it be that…his other self was the one that destroyed the robot?

The image of the trigger appeared in his mind and the changeling began to feel apprehensive.

What if-?

"Stop lying, Beast Boy," the leader growled and the young Titan looked angrily towards his leader. "I know you're hiding something from us and I want you to tell us now what happened. What did Slade want?"

Honestly, Beast Boy didn't know.

Was it to kill him?

Or was it to somehow destroy all of them, one after the other?

Or…maybe he wanted to resurrect Raven's father in some freaky way?

"I don't know…"

Robin stepped closer to the shape-shifter and slammed his fist angrily against the table. "You know something! And if you don't want to risk the team's safety, you better tell me what he was looking for and why."

Beast Boy clenched his fists, getting fed up with Robin's obsessiveness. Did he ever think about his safety? Did he ever think about anything else except what Slade was up to?

The changeling stood up from his seat, unable to take it any longer. "I told you everything I know, ok? Just like you, I have no idea what Slade wanted to find. Just like Raven, I have no idea where this stupid notebook came from. But instead of getting on my case, you could try to find out yourself," he growled and moved past him before Cyborg's voice caught their attention.

"I don't think that's possible. Our security cameras are busted…and so is our crime alert," he said as he tried to bring up last night's images from the tower's cameras on the mainframe. "The bots somehow must have bypassed our security."

"What?" Raven and Starfire exclaimed.

Beast Boy stopped for a moment, not liking what he heard.

"…I always keep my eye on you…"

Slade's voice added to the changeling's already existing anxiety before Robin replaced it with disappointment.

"You have to tell us something. You have to help us get to Slade before he gets to us," Robin said, his voice getting a slightly softer tone to it…but the changeling wasn't touched in the slightest.

And where were they when he needed help? The closest that came to helping him was Raven but now even she seemed to have been influenced by Robin's words.

And even if he wanted to, he couldn't. The lives of hundreds of students were still in danger, not to mention Terra as well – all because of that missing trigger.

"This is all I can do for you," he mumbled and walked out of the common room, but seeing that Beast Boy couldn't help them with their questions, Robin focused his attention on the tower's security.

"How long do you think it'll take to fix it?" the leader asked the half-robot.

"Depends on the problem. But it probably shouldn't take more than a few days the most."

He gave an approving nod for Cyborg to start repairing the mainframe computer when Raven approached him.

"Robin? I know you want to know how Slade managed to get into the tower but the way you go about things is not really getting us anywhere."

"Do you have any better idea?" he asked, slightly annoyed.

Raven glanced away for a moment before her expression turned more determined. "Let me see what happened. I will enter Beast Boy's mind tonight when he is asleep. Then I should be able to find out where he put the book and maybe even how Slade managed to get into the tower."

"Fine. Just don't let him find out," Robin said, unknowing to them that Beast Boy had heard their intended plans as he lingered behind the door.

And his grip on his friends slipped further.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Life or death

His trust in Raven faded when hearing that she had outright planned to take advantage of him. Didn't they realize that he kept his mouth shut for them – that he did this for the innocent people Slade had in his grasp!?

His communicator brought him out of his thoughts as a red dot appeared on the virtual map of Jump City and displayed the location of a jewelry store that had just been robbed.

But he waited for a moment, waiting for the others to come charging out of the door…but they didn't. He turned back to the door to tell them of the news…but he stopped himself as a voice spoke in his head.

"You will always be the weak one in the team."

He turned away, reluctantly. It was his fault that his evil twin was running around in Jump City and he would be the one to fix this.

And a robbed store is something he could handle alone. From now on, he will never be called the weak one in the team!

With that thought, he dashed off.

The sound of the bell rang through the class and students slowly got up from their seats as they headed out of class. Somewhere between the different heads, the principal suddenly peeked inside.

"Amber? Would you come to my office please?" he said before the head vanished after Amber nodded.

"Detention?" Terra asked curiously.

"No way! I think it's my mom. She's been worried ever since I showed up with these," she said and pointed with her bandaged hand to her black eye.

Terra looked at her in worry and Amber placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't give me that look. I'll be fine. I'm more worried about you."

Terra's worry turned to confusion. "Me? What are you talking about? You're the one looking like a mummy."

Amber's gaze turned serious and her voice lowered slightly. "That guy is literally nuts! You have to be careful!"

Terra's confusion vanished. "I…know him. He's a well-known hero, Amber."

"He might be in your eyes…but don't judge a book by its cover. He just attacked two civilians randomly and only to mess with you!"

"Mess with me?" she asked, the idea in itself being funny.

"Listen to me! Stay away from him. No matter how nice he tries to be…he is not your friend," Amber said, staring into the other's eyes before she left.

Terra lowered her gaze as sudden images of said boy appeared in her mind as his cold eyes drove a stake into her heart. But what hurt more were the words that left his lips.

"You don't have any friends!"

Terra placed her head on the table, her hands gently placed on the sides of her head.

Why did those images hurt so much?

The sun was merciless as the green changeling sped through the streets but soon reached his destination and his eyes skimmed over the broken display cases, and debris that littered parts of the shop as cracks and small holes decorated the surrounding walls.

But what surprised him was that not a single piece of gold had been stolen!

Which villain was stupid enough to leave gold behind?

He turned away from the display case and continued his search outside the shop…when he heard cawing sounds from overhead and he turned just to see a crow fly dangerously close past him.

His heart skipped a beat, having taken in the red eyes of the bird as it flew past and Beast Boy spun around before morphing into a hawk, giving chase. Sensing, something following, the crow vanished to become a hawk also and speeding up as it did a turn around the corner of another shop.

The green hawk followed only to see a grey cat running from him and turning another corner, this time to the left. The hawk vanished to become a Doberman and slowly, Beast Boy managed to decrease the distance between him and the cat, before it suddenly leaped at a tree and from there jumped as a flying squirrel onto a roof. Beast Boy followed the example as a butterfly before morphing into human, seeing that the roof was empty.

Where had he gone?

The green changeling jumped off the roof after scanning it and had run just a few steps when his communicator caught his attention again.

"Are you that big of a chicken?" Beast Boy growled, seeing his own face on the screen. "Why don't you try to finish what you started?"

"I have almost finished it," came the reply. "Why don't you just turn around so I can show you?"

Beast Boy did, shielding himself as he expected a surprise attack. But he lowered his hands in confusion as he came face to face with a familiar school.

And suddenly, the apprehension came back.

"Just show yourself! I'm tired of playing hide and seek," the changeling shouted, his eyes running over the street and yard.

"Too bad. I was starting to like that game," the changeling heard the voice from the device and turned to look at his communicator.

And his eyes stared in wide horror when he was faced with a small black device in his other half's hand.

"You…wouldn't-"

Those words left his mouth pleadingly and the grey figure sneered in amusement. "Chill! Of course I wouldn't. I have…other uses for this thing."

His pleading look vanished instantly and he frowned. "What would you want with this then?"

"You'll find out soon enough," he smirked and his device turned blank suddenly, causing his anger to increase – anger at himself that he once again let a villain slip through his fingers.

But he decided not to act out in pure anger. He had to keep his cool if he wanted to beat…Trigon's creation. After all, all his anger didn't help him catch the escaping menace last time.

His gaze turned back to the school and for a moment, he wished he had never met the girl that resembled Terra so much.

He never knew…moving on would hurt so much.

Meanwhile Robin and Starfire watched as Cyborg performed the last adjustments on the mainframe computer before his head poked out from behind and smiled at them.

"Ok, just let me check the security cam-"

The word 'alert' flashing on the screen and his human eye widened when the computer identified small explosives in the form of black bugs scattered all around the tower – including in each of their rooms.

"Guys?" he said and the two others loomed closer to him, hearing his voice almost shake. "You…might want to see this."

Raven's patience and calm were slowly running out as she rummaged through Beast Boy's room, her eyes on the lookout for the notebook.

But wherever she looked and whatever object she turned over, that notebook didn't show up.

Did Beast Boy say the truth?

She gave out a sigh, not really liking to invade other people's thoughts against their will but she had to do this if she wanted to save the world from Trigon.

She had to make sure.

Raven turned away before she heard Robin calling her name – and she didn't like the nervousness in his voice. "What's the matter?" she asked as soon as she stepped into the common room.

"You won't like what I found. Our tower has been rigged with explosives…and we need you to deactivate them. Can you do that – and fast?" Robin said, pointing to the map displayed on the computer screen.

"Don't you have Cyborg for this task?"

"Who'll take care of our security?" Robin asked before turning his gaze to the screen.

"And what will you do?"

"Fix Beast Boy's mistake."

Before Raven could answer, she felt Cyborg nudge her side before he walked out of the common room, telling Robin he forgot something to finish repairs. Getting the hint, Raven followed not long after.

"I know our situation but I don't want Robin to come to conclusions yet," Cyborg said and Raven looked at him in surprise. "I know Beast Boy…and he might be careless at times but I don't think any of this is his fault."

Raven wasn't that surprised to hear this from Cyborg but it was a bit disappointing to hear this so late – even if it wasn't too late yet. "I know…but unfortunately once Robin sets his mind on something, he'll stick to it like superglue."

"Maybe it would be wise to do 'the ganging up' on him and convince him together that Beast Boy is innocent," Starfire floated towards them and Raven almost smiled at her choice of words.

"I don't know if I can do it but-"

"We'll try it together," Cyborg said and Starfire smiled at the sorceress before slowly, she smiled in return and they returned to the common room where Robin awaited them.

They would try to use words one last time before she would use force instead.

"So?" he asked Raven with a hint of impatience.

"I'll try…"

Ringing sounds echoed through the hallways and Terra was currently walking towards her locker, having decided that getting out of the classroom would distract her…from the strange thoughts that appeared in her mind. She opened her lock eagerly, looking forward to Physics class before her eyes stared in confusion as she noticed a silver object on top of her Physics book. She took it into her hand reluctantly and as she took in the butterfly shape it was formed as, sudden anger filled her, realizing that Beast Boy must have left it in her locker on purpose – to mess with her.

She clutched the hairclip tightly as her anger continued to grow, images of Amber and Dionne appearing in her mind.

Images of that hero's cold stare directed at her.

And for once, she decided to stop playing friendly. She had to get him out of her life – because this proved that Amber was right.

He really was nuts!

"I'm only a normal girl," she muttered before her next words came out in a shrill scream. "I'm not Terra!"

And as if scared of her emotional outburst, the ground under her began shaking.

Raven suddenly felt tremors around the tower, not even managing to finish her sentence before an explosion sounded from below. "Alright! I just need-"

Another explosion occurred, and to her horror, the force of it sent Starfire flying across the hall before she tried to get up. Unfortunately, the ceiling started crumbling and a large part of it was headed for her before Robin jumped to push her away.

"Thank you, Robin," Starfire smiled but her joy was short-lived when the ground under them began tilting.

"Get out of here!" Robin shouted and Cyborg just managed to shoot a hole into the ceiling before the hall rocked once more, more violently.

Raven managed to put up a shield before she was catapulted against the windowpane, cracking it. Opening her eyes slowly, she called out to her friends. "Get…a move on already." But nobody answered her and Raven slowly realized that the demolished common room was empty, only broken walls and a destroyed computer greeting her. "G-guys?" she groaned before trying to get up and slowly leaning against the cracked glass of the window that overlooked the city. The sorceress had heard their screams but she refused to believe they had been hurt – she had to stay hopeful. She closed her eyes, trying to figure out a way to stop the tremors. "Azarath, Metrion-"

"You're too late, Raven."

The half-demon let out a gasp before her eyes snapped open but all she saw were large fists colliding with her, sending her against the window again, causing more cracks to appear. "B-Beast Boy?" She didn't know what had just happened and why Beast Boy had sounded like…he was happy when he said that line. The half-demon was about to tell him to look for the others when the image of her father appeared again behind her closed eyelids. "It's…Trigon!" she said, her voice shaking a bit.

"No," came his voice before a sudden and painful force sent her through the glass and she managed to open her eyes as she was falling.

And her eyes widened in choking fear as she saw a grey version of her teammate sneering down at her.

"It's me," he said before he morphed into a bee and escaped through a small space of a broken window but Raven realized that she couldn't escape the looming tower as it collapsed. The half-demon stared after the bee as she fell into the sea – the tower collapsing on top of her before it sank into the sea as well.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Forgotten Memories

Darkness spread so fast around her, she didn't even see it coming!

But she felt small amounts of pain cruising through her and she knew she still…existed.

What had happened – all she knew was that she had screamed in anger before the ground under her began shaking?

Shaking – why did this word seem so familiar to her?

Heavy eyelids opened slowly, sight blurry at first before objects came into a sharper focus. And the first thing she saw were overturned and dented lockers, a broken clock lying on the floor and…a collapsed wall, revealing another classroom which was in a similar state with its turned tables and chairs.

Did…a tornado pass here?

The hallways were almost deserted; the only students present were 2 that had rushed hurriedly out of the library in the distance. Terra turned to look the other way but that direction wasn't much better off.

Wherever she looked, she was faced with destruction.

Terra took slow steps into the right direction, fluorescent lights flickering as sparks shot from them. The tremors under her have long stopped but she could somehow still hear as the ground and walls continued to shift, cracks widening or just having formed and dust swirling up between the moving gaps of cement.

The girl lightly coughed as dust was kicked up in front of her and some debris dropped beside her and she blinked away some tears that the dust caused in her eyes. She quickened her steps as her eyes took in more of her surrounding – broken bulletin boards, collapsed doors and shattered windows lining the hallway.

"W-what…happened?" she choked, her voice weak and low and it surprised her she could still talk this loud.

But nobody was there to answer her and her walk turned to a jog as her eyes searched for the exit – for a way out of this…nightmare.

"Amber? Amber!" she called, suddenly remembering her friend and she bolted into a sprint but she hadn't passed more than one classroom when she felt a sense of…déjà vu.

She didn't know why…but she had the feeling that she was being chased and so she turned around. But the only thing that moved was the cracks on the walls and ceiling. She shut her eyes, trying to get that feeling out of her as she continued running.

And then she heard screeching sounds – someone had turned on the speakers. Was someone in the principal's office?

Could it be Amber…that was looking for her?

She immediately stopped as that thought rooted itself deeper into her mind. What if Amber was hurt too – what if she had ended up like Dionne?

Worry mixed with hope as the girl leaned against the wall, trying to catch her breath. She hadn't been running much but maybe that was the pain that still plagued her and she glanced down at herself. She had several bruises of varying sizes on her legs and arms and felt the burning sensation of a small cut here and there, probably from the harsh fall.

Shaky hands traveled to her face before the movement stopped, feeling something wet on the side of her head.

Blood?

She didn't bother to check as her attention was still on crackling sounds the speakers made. Could it be that…Amber didn't make it?

Her heart dropped at that thought but she gently shook that thought from her before deciding to look for her on the way to the exit instead of waiting.

She had taken barely a step…when the speakers finally came back to life.

"Aren't you tired of running, Terra?"

Blue eyes widened in utter horror as the girl heard the familiar voice – a voice she thought she wouldn't have to hear anymore.

She turned around, trying to find the location of the hated object that produced this voice so she could fling a rock at it.

Her eyes lowered, feeling another sense of déjà vu spread through her – déjà vu with strange fear. She wouldn't admit it but she was scared. Something about this situation was all too familiar and she just wished for it to be over.

But the voice in her head wouldn't leave her alone.

"Don't lose control! Don't lose control!"

A low gasp escaped her, hearing that it was her that begged like a lost child. "Lose…c-control?" her voice was barely above a whisper as she tried to make sense…of all of this.

"Did you get it yet?" Beast Boy's voice filled the hallway again and she reluctantly looked towards the ceiling, anger mixing in with her torrent of emotions.

"What do you want?" she said, feeling too confused to really sound angry.

The voice continued. "You were one of us – someone with great power. But you couldn't control it."

"I…told you that you got the wrong girl. I'm not your friend. Amber and Dionne are," she said, her anger slowly seeping into her voice.

And then she heard laughter that was creepy enough to give her Goosebumps. "Very funny. I think you forgot…you don't have any friends," the voice said coldly and the blonde-haired girl felt the stake once again pierce her and she clenched her fists.

"But-"

"We are your only friends – but now that I think about it, after you took sides with Slade things didn't go really well."

"Slade?" Why did that name sound so familiar?

"I told you once that he was our enemy – I actually told your whole story once but you would never even try to remember."

Terra slowly moved away from the wall. "Because that girl you call Terra…is not me." Dust was kicked up once again and Terra stepped back once again, feeling like the ceiling was about to collapse on her. "I-I'm…not the girl you want me to be," she growled, hoping she sounded angry enough to scare him off.

Amber was right about him messing with her.

"I don't want you to be her. I want you to stop denying who you really are," his voice seemed to linger in the air as she remembered similar words muttered only days ago.

"Because I know who she really is…"

Terra clenched her fists. "You don't know anything about me!" she shouted vehemently and ran.

She had to get away!

"On the contrary, Terra. I know everything about you," his voice echoed off the walls.

"No!" she cried as she held her hands onto her ears to stop more taunts and lies from corrupting her. But her cry wasn't angry – it was pure fear as the image of a black and orange mask appeared in front of her eyes.

She remembered that mask almost as clearly as if she had been wearing it herself!

But she wouldn't let him control her – nobody had the right to hurt or control her! "My name is not Terra!"

It was funny really…almost entertaining to see this girl deny so hard being someone she had been all her life. Her outbursts literally screamed that she already remembered. But it was nice to see…that she had regrets – part of him wanted to see her struggle, to see her broken – just like she had broken him on their first date.

"What's your real name then? How about traitor? Or runaway? Or better yet, liar?" he spoke and Terra's eyes snapped open, more memories and images coming into focus.

Images of her sending secret e-mails about the Titans to someone named 'Slade'.

Images of her defeating the Titans one by one.

The girl's hands pressed against her head as she whirled around. "Stop lying to me! Stop trying to corrupt me!" she shouted, using pure rage to get him away from her.

"Wasn't it you lying to us…by being corrupted by Slade? By being so weak-willed so he could corrupt you?"

Terra's eyes widened, hearing those words before images of a pillar floating above her current tormentor flashed in her mind. 'He's too strong…' "I-I'm…not weak-willed…" she spoke in a low voice, feeling that his words got a toll on her.

"If you weren't…then you wouldn't have chosen this life."

It was a lie – she had chosen this life because this was her life!

Terra turned towards the wall, wishing to just vanish into thin air – nothing hurt more than the words he threw at her. "This…is my choice…" she said slowly.

"This isn't your choice. This is forced... and I know you're not happy at all."

"Who are you to pretend to know when I'm happy?" she asked, lowering her gaze.

Why was she arguing with this guy? She had to find Amber!

She started walking again before more walls collapsed and Terra felt the fear return double and on instinct, she stared at her hands.

Was she…the one who caused always destruction?

"Because I told you…you could still change," the voice echoed and this sentence was like a hit to the back of her head as that moment replayed in her head.

She remembered! Every single moment of her life was about her running from those that could bring out the worst in her…until she ran from herself!

"That's not me! Things change – I'm not that girl…because I'm stronger than her," she murmured, tears filling her eyes as she could no longer hide the painful truth.

She was still running away from herself – she was still hiding.

The changeling narrowed his eyes. There it was; that horrible sentence – 'things change'.

"Then why are you so obviously scared – why are you crying when you're supposed to be all happy with your new life?" he asked, part of him overjoyed to see that he managed to break her spirit like glass.

Terra slowly sank to the floor before cracks appeared on the wall she was leaning against, sending shivers running along her body.

'If you knew something bad about me, would you still be my friend?'

Her hands grabbed a fistful of her hair, hearing the coming lie in her head – a lie that was her fault.

'Always.'

The tears spilled and Terra let out a defeated whimper. "I…lied…" she cried, letting the tears flow freely as it would hurt only more if she tried to deny the things that were nothing but the truth.

The speakers answered with silence.

And just when she had finally remembered why she had chosen this life, part of the ceiling above her dropped towards her and all that escaped her was a gasp.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Revenge

He hadn't planned for things to go so far. But drastic situations called for drastic measures and now the green changeling found himself facing a certain ex-villain in the Jump City Library, her pink eyes glancing curiously back at him.

She might have changed sides but Beast Boy still didn't feel entirely comfortable having to ask Jinx for help. He wasn't sure if she knew anything about Trigon or that notebook, especially after finding out that even Raven was practically clueless but he had to find out something!

"Spill it already!" the pink-haired girl groaned, crossing her arms over her chest. "I was on patrol duty with Kid Flash today and the last thing I need is him getting wrong ideas when he comes to fetch me," she said before glancing at her nails and her gaze went up to the shape-shifter again. "Though…he doesn't seem to be the type to get jealous…"

The green Titan's eyes quickly wandered left and right, hoping that speedster wasn't already here to get his girl – with his speed it wouldn't be surprising. "Well, you see…it started with…meeting Terra…and she didn't want to see me anymore..."

"Oh boy," Jinx rolled her eyes, feeling that a goodnight story was on its way. "I might have agreed to help you but my impatience is running out as fast as Kid Flash's warm-ups. Just get to the point."

Beast Boy frowned, before sighing. "I was getting to that point. You see, there is basically an evil clone of me running around in Jump City because I read a spell from a notebook…and now I have no clue how to fix this."

One of her brows rose questioningly. "Have you tried telling Raven, genius?"

"Uh…the thing is that the spell has to do with her father who is an inter-dimensional demon and had once tried to destroy earth," he mumbled. "Trigon."

Jinx gaped at him for a moment. "Raven's dad? And she couldn't sense the magic from the notebook?"

The changeling shrugged his shoulders and Jinx sighed this time before holding out her hand and he cocked his head in confusion.

"The book – I need to see it for me to help," she replied and Beast Boy glanced embarrassed away.

"I…destroyed it," he answered meekly.

"What? How am I supposed to know what to do when there is no spell?"

"Does it help when I say that once I used the spell, the pages turned blank?" he asked hopefully.

"Not much…but maybe that's the reason why Raven didn't suspect anything. The magic wasn't in the notebook but in the letters of the spell itself and once the letters vanished it was just a simple notebook," she explained and it made sense to the changeling. "Sorry, but without a notebook, I can't do anything," she said, preparing to stand up before Beast Boy took hold of her hand to stop her.

A look of surprise crossed her as she took in his expression of hope and desperation…and honestly, it made her feel good to know that some people needed her.

Being a hero really had its perks!

"Wait! Maybe…we can get the notebook back. I heard Raven say that she couldn't destroy the notebook before I tried it myself."

This info intrigued her but a lost book is as good as a destroyed one.

"Have you checked where you dropped what was left of it?"

"And get old while I'm at it? I dropped the shreds into the ocean!"

"Then I guess the next best thing is here, right?" she answered and Beast Boy groaned.

"You know how long it will take me to finish flipping open all of those books – a long time!" he cried, waving his hands dramatically and Jinx smirked at him before getting up.

Good that nobody came at this time and the librarian had left to go to check a new delivery of books.

"Not when you have magic on your side," she said and her eyes glowed pink before she shot a pink ray at the shelves filled with books. It didn't even take 2 seconds for the books to fly out of the shelves, floating into the air until the whole hall was filled with the flapping sounds of flipping pages.

"Found it yet?" Jinx asked, her hands raised above her head.

The changeling's eyes travelled from one book to the next before it rested on a leathered book floating close to the librarian's desk and Beast Boy morphed into a falcon, snatching the book from the air and dropping it in front of Jinx.

"Yeah. Any ideas on how to reverse the spell?" he asked when he had opened the book on the first page where the spell had been.

"How did you defeat him last time?" she asked as she continued to study the blank pages.

"I didn't. It was Cyborg."

She looked up at him. "And why exactly didn't you tell him to help you with this?" she asked a bit annoyed.

"He might be my best friend but I don't think he would keep quiet about this from the others," Beast Boy admitted and Jinx shook her head.

"So you prefer to risk being killed than telling your team?"

"No. Some people are in trouble and if my team finds out…maybe those people will be the ones getting killed," Beast Boy said, images of a black and orange mask appearing in front of his eyes and Jinx's annoyance faded, seeing his angered expression.

"Wow. Seems like you're in a real ditch! Have you tried ganging up on him?" she asked, feeling like she wasn't much help after all but would try anyways.

"Not really. I was getting back-up when I fought him but he got cold feet and fled. But…I feel like…this is different somehow. When Trigon used to do this to me, he didn't really use a spell. It…just happened in a way. And this time…my other half is stronger - like he leveled up or something."

"Maybe that's because of how down you've been feeling, especially after Terra refused to see you. By the way it sounds; your clone is a manifestation of all your negative emotions. The more upset you are, the stronger your evil version gets," she said and she almost felt sad seeing his hopeful expression dim down to almost nothing.

Smiles fit him so much better!

Jinx slowly placed a hand on his shoulder and he looked up in confusion, not having expected any physical contact from her.

"But I think I know how you can still beat him. The fact that neither Raven nor you can destroy the notebook can mean only one thing. The notebook has to be destroyed by him!"

There was a short moment of silence.

"And…how do you plan on getting that done? I don't think he would willingly destroy himself!"

And then he saw her smirk at him as she took a step forward.

"Risk your life in a fight with him…and when he least expects it, strike."

"And this plan is supposed to be foolproof? What…if it doesn't work?" he asked doubtfully but Jinx was glad she had managed to bring him out of his sadness.

She leaned closer to him, making sure he wouldn't fall into another state of hopelessness and she was amused how…nervous the shape-shifter was getting. "Why so blue? Maybe…you might just get lucky," she said in a low voice before winking at him and was pleased to see him blush slightly out of embarrassment before she turned and started to walk away, the books filling the shelves again with a mere snap of her fingers.

Beast Boy slowly smiled, feeling that he might indeed get lucky – all he needed was the element of surprise…and if all else fails, he could always rely on the other Titans for a surprise attack. "Thanks, Jinx. That talk was seriously magical," he cackled and Jinx sighed.

His puns certainly weren't any better after their chat!

She smiled unknowing to him.

At least his mood was.

The sun slowly began setting when Beast Boy finally walked out of the library. His stomach immediately protested and not wanting to go home just yet, he decided to make a quick stop at a fast food restaurant.

And as he thought about what his afternoon snack would be, he came up at a familiar street and his eyes wandered around, in search of a certain building.

He would only make sure…that she was safe.

But this thought quickly vanished from his mind as his eyes rested on a crowd in the distance and he rushed towards the scene. And as he tried to force his way through the crowd of students, his eyes fell on a certain red-head and their eyes met for only a split second.

But the split-second was all that was needed for the shape-shifter to see the obvious fear in her eyes and the bandaged hand before she turned away, hurriedly vanishing in the crowd.

He focused his attention back to the front when she had vanished and after managing to push his way out of the crowd…all that escaped him was a horrified gasp and he felt like all his energy was draining from his body.

His eyes filled with tears as he kept staring at the destroyed and burning building named Murakami School.

"Terra!" He was already running when her name burst from him and he rushed through the entrance.

Was he already too late?

Had this entire struggle to keep his other half a secret been for nothing?

He clenched his teeth, trying to run faster as he realized…that maybe he had cast the spell for nothing.

Dodging falling debris, Beast Boy checked one room after the other, his anger and grief increasing with each step he took – each step revealing more destruction. Smoke filled a few classrooms and began to spread into the hallways as well.

He called out to the blonde-haired girl again but the cracking sounds of the walls were the only thing that answered him. He tried it once more, his voice shrill as he tried to make his voice carry through the hallway…but nothing moved and he finally came to a stop.

His eyes rested on a silver ornament on the floor in a corner and a mixture of confusion, hatred and sadness spread through him. He slowly picked it up, studying it – it was Terra's butterfly hairclip and he knew someone had fished it from the ocean…to scare her – to remind her.

But instead of being hopeful that she might have remembered, the changeling felt loathing for the one that dared to hurt her with unwanted memories.

And that included himself too.

And now, because of this…she was gone and with this realization his tears finally spilled before he fisted the object in his hand.

Hiding won't work anymore – his team had to know!

Beast Boy pulled out his communicator. "G-guys? A school is in trouble." His voice was shaky and he stopped to calm down – without success – because he noticed that there was no signal. "Robin! It's Beast Boy! I think Slade's back," he said but was struck with worry when he received no answer.

Were they still mad at him and that was their way of punishing him?

His grip on the ornament got tighter before he let it disappear into his belt and dashed out of the school before morphing into a hawk.

Why weren't they answering?

He felt more of his energy fading the closer he came to his home until he morphed back to human by the coast. He gaped out into the sea, slowly taking a few steps forward but the sight before him didn't change and he had the feeling like someone was squeezing the air out of him.

His eyes stayed glued to the island that stood out in the middle of blue and where once his T-shaped home stood proudly, watching over the city, now there was only the section with the entrance left, small flames adorning it as they ate away at its remains – just like a tree that had been freshly cut with a buzz saw.

"Guys!" His voice filled with fear and for a moment, he felt like the other half of him had just died as well.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Last stand

This couldn't be happening!

He had been in the tower just hours ago, overhearing his friends trying to get their answers out of him…and now they were gone.

And it was all his fault – he hated himself!

He had once again acted on impulse and he had to pay with his friends' lives. No! He would refuse to give up!

With a sudden leap, the changeling morphed into a pterodactyl to reach the island. He circled the island a few times but all he was greeted with was desolated scenery. His eyes reluctantly shifted to the body of water around it, as he thought of different possibilities of the occurrences that led to his friends' disappearance.

A sudden thought came to his mind and the pterodactyl vanished, the green titan diving headfirst into the deep blue.

They had to be in here somewhere.

The green boy turned into a dolphin, diving ever deeper until he came to the seabed and swam a few laps around the tower, each time covering a little more area.

But all he found was seaweed and fish.

After a few more laps, he reluctantly swam back to the island. With a heavy heart, he sat down on a rather large rock, letting his head fall into his hands.

They…just vanished.

Like they were still alive somewhere.

That thought only brought fresh tears to his eyes, memories of him and Cyborg playing on the Gamestation, trying to beat each other's high scores, him and Starfire trying to bathe a rather stubborn Silkie, him and Robin sparring in the training room (and him ending up once again on his back), and him and Raven arguing about whether the TV was too loud.

And he even missed the arguments!

He squeezed his eyes shut, hoping for the tears to vanish, for him to stop shaking like he had been just dug out from under piles of snow.

His communicator brought him out of his train of thought but he decided to ignore the ringing, probably being another petty crime before the possibility of his friends calling him sneaked into his mind.

With shaking hands, he took it out of his belt but his hope vanished when seeing that it was indeed just another normal crime.

What was this stupid thing good for if he couldn't contact his friends?

His anger slowly vanished, realizing that he could always call the honorary Titans for help and he tried his luck on the first person that came to his mind – a certain pink-haired witch.

But his screen remained black and the Titan raised a confused eyebrow. This was new!

He tried calling Jericho and Aqualad as well but the result was the same and out of curiosity, he tried calling Robin again…when he suddenly noticed the words 'no signal' were displayed on the screen.

Could it be…that their communicators were still functional and were just scattered after the explosion occurred?

But that didn't mean that his friends were alive.

It only confused him.

He let his communicator disappear back into his belt, before reluctantly standing up. The tears had somehow stopped and a new emotion filled the young changeling as he stared out into the sea – into the endless, blue void.

"You don't know me yet," he mumbled, the sentence directed at the ones that caused his loss.

With that sentence, he morphed into a dove and flew towards the shopping district of Jump City. Once at his destination, the changeling morphed back into himself and searched the various shops for his villain. The streets were particularly busy at this time and he found himself pushing civilians out of his way to find him.

He had just turned a corner when his eyes spotted a black van, speeding down the street and a couple had just jumped aside to escape the speeding vehicle. Thinking fast, Beast Boy morphed into a cheetah and gave chase, before turning a corner again.

The van was now driving on the side-walk and more civilians jumped out of the path of the approaching van but it didn't take the green cheetah long to reach the vehicle and slash its back tires. The vehicle skid for a few meters before it came to a stop by a hydrant as it hit it quite forcefully. The back doors suddenly opened and 3 masked figures began shooting with their handguns in the titan's direction.

The cheetah turned to a fly as it approached, skillfully dodging each bullet before morphing into a mighty gorilla and sending the first man crashing against the back of the van.

Hearing clicks behind him; the gorilla grabbed the closest man by the throat and threw him against the last one, sending both tumbling out of the van. The gorilla vanished to become a tiger and lashed out at the one that still tried to get up and let his jaws close upon his arm before flinging him away. Footsteps came from behind him and he turned around to see the driver aiming his gun at him. The green titan managed to evade by becoming a mouse and was scurrying in zig-zags towards him before lunging himself in human form at him, causing him to fall.

The man recovered quickly, aiming once again at the hero but the changeling hit the metal object out of his hand.

"Remember my face, dude! Because this face will put you away for a long time," he scowled but received only amused laughter in return.

"Oh yeah? You and what army?" the man sneered as one of his hands travelled to his pants pockets before Beast Boy grabbed the moving hand in a vice-grip.

'Army' he asked? Beast Boy didn't need an army – not this time.

Because whenever he needed one…he either endangered them or they stayed away so he wouldn't risk it. And now it was his fault that they were gone. Maybe it was better if they just used force on him – that he let them use force on him.

But now it was too late…and he had to fight crime alone.

At least he would take it serious from now on!

And before he knew what had happened, he had sent his fist smashing into the man's face…and he heard a faint cracking sound.

It sounded almost funny before he let his fist connect a second time, using more force.

"How's this for an army?" he said, suddenly feeling pride fill him as his swings became faster.

Is this how Robin wanted him to be – how he wanted him to take crime and the Titans seriously?

A pained whimper sounded from under him and he looked down to see that his fist had connected another time, the face suddenly feeling so soft.

"S-stop…I…give up!" the man mumbled under him and Beast Boy slowly removed his fist and he felt his heart beating in his throat, seeing that the man's face as well as his knuckles were stained red.

"I…couldn't…hear you. Speak up!" the changeling said slowly, not satisfied until he would have paid for reminding him about his team and prepared to strike again.

"I'm…sorry! Please…just take me to jail already," the man cried…and somehow the green boy enjoyed seeing the villain beg under him.

"That's better," Beast Boy grinned before getting off the villain and was happy to see police cars in the distance. He figured that he was the only one conscious but was too beaten to be able to walk long distances.

The changeling turned away before his communicator beeped once again and another surge of hope filled him.

No…it was probably just another villain in the need of some beating. He shouldn't feel so hopeful all the time – hope only makes the fall harder.

Just like the fall in hoping to get Terra back – like the fall in hoping that his team still trusted him. It was better if he stopped hoping…and just focused on being a Titan – being a hero.

He pulled out his communicator before a shocked gasp escaped him as he came face to face with a Sladebot facing the screen. "Slade! What do you want now, huh?" Beast Boy growled, wondering why he still contacted him, especially since Terra's school was already destroyed.

As an answer, the Sladebot's head moved to reveal a large hall and the changeling felt his anger return, remembering what hall was displayed on the screen – the warehouse where he came in possession of the notebook.

So could it be that Slade was after the notebook?

But he would be after it for nothing since it can't be destroyed…unless he had some other plans for it.

Maybe something worse?

There was only one way to find out!

After Beast Boy had located several bags with jewelry, expensive antiques and money, he returned them to the nearest police station before flying off, not wanting to wait to be questioned.

Once again he passed the amusement park but he felt nothing except rage. He glanced at his bloody glove and suddenly wished that this was Slade's blood on his knuckles – that it was Slade he had punched relentlessly until his disgusting mask may break along with all his bones in his face.

It was all Slade's fault anyways – Slade's fault he found himself in this situation in the first place.

His gaze shifted to his other arm, the bite mark of his darker self not that visible anymore and even the patches of blood seemed to have gotten smaller but he couldn't deny the feeling that Slade might not be as big of a problem as Trigon's spawn.

But he knew once he managed to defeat Slade, he might even be able to defeat himself – even if he had to do it without the others.

He fisted both hands, feeling sadness creep inside of him – that horrible feeling of emptiness that plagued him ever since he had run away from Terra's school. And so, he purposefully tried to remember all the horrible things he had done – all the things that Terra had refused to remember…and he was relieved to see that the empty feeling was slowly being filled with anger – and hints of revenge.

Was it wrong of him to feel vengeful – even after losing his friends through him?

He finally came to the door and it was open a crack and all it needed was a light push so the changeling could enter. The only light were two light bulbs shining dimly in the otherwise dark hall.

Sizzling sounds caught his attention and his eyes wandered around the area until he noticed a pile of metal arms and legs in the corner. Occasionally, blue sparks would fly from the metal scraps and when he had stepped closer, he realized that they were Sladebots piled up like dirty laundry.

"Slade!" Beast Boy growled before he noticed movement behind him and turned around…to see a Sladebot flying his way and Beast Boy immediately shot out his fist, breaking the face in mid-air before it crashed onto the floor - a limb falling off.

But after closer inspection, he realized that the robot was already destroyed before his attack as blue sparks flew from a gaping hole on the right side of his chest.

Chuckling echoed through the hall. "Close."

But Beast Boy's anger only doubled, hearing that voice.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Intentions

The changeling's eyes roamed the hall for the source of the voice before he whipped around.

"If you could just see yourself right now! I bet Cyborg would be more than happy to get some shots of you right now so he could send them to the other titans," the voice continued and a sudden heat burst inside of the last titan.

"Show your face, you coward!" he shouted through the hall.

"Why so angry? Don't tell me you think your friends…died when their tower blew up?"

The young titan clenched his teeth at that indirect confession. "It was you! I always knew it was you!"

"Wow, good job! And where did that get you? You knew it and still kept quiet about it. Talk about being a good friend," he laughed and Beast Boy felt shame with hatred mix inside of him.

"I know they're not dead! I know they are still around somewhere," he protested, taking another look at his communicator but the message on the screen wasn't really 'solid' proof but at least it gave him still some hope.

Too bad that the next words changed his outlook on his friends' lives greatly.

"Yeah, 'around' as in dead meat," the voice continued and Beast Boy turned as he heard rustling sounds from behind…only to see some sort of fabric falling downwards and when he had taken a few steps closer…he came face to face with a black and yellow cape and only when he had picked it up, did he realize that this was Robin's cape, tattered and soaking wet.

He let it go as if he had held Robin's body in his hand and his face lifted to hear more rustling sound – this time a torn piece of fabric – fabric that was dark blue/purple and Beast Boy had a strange sense that this was from Raven's cloak. This fabric was also soaking wet and the green hero was slowly overcome with a sense of dread.

His eyes finally tore away from the fabric when he heard another, heavier object falling a bit further. Letting the purple piece of cloth drop, the changeling walked slowly towards the fallen object and he managed to make out the outlines…of a hand. After a mere two steps, he realized that it indeed was a hand – metallic with a few wires still poking from where the wrist was cut off.

"Not so hopeful now, are we?" his own voice taunted and Beast Boy tore his eyes away from Cyborg's unmoving limb and he tried so hard to stop the tears from reaching his eyes. And so he focused on his anger for his other half before he morphed into a hawk and charged upwards in the direction where the limb had fallen from.

But he was only half-way up when something hit him from the side and he tumbled back down but managed to somehow soften his fall by slowing his landing as he flapped his wings frantically. The green changeling accomplished to land in a crouching position before his eyes frantically searched his attacker from the direction he had fallen from.

And suddenly he heard footsteps from behind him and only managed to get into standing position when he felt a fist connect with his jaw and sending him onto his back but with a little roll, the green hero managed to get back onto his feet to see the same fist lash out at him again but this time, managed to block it before countering with his own. Unfortunately, that move was expected and his move was blocked in the same way and he found himself face to face with his darker self once again.

"You should thank me instead of just coming at me like I've beat your high score at one of your video games," his grey version smirked.

"Oh, sorry about that. How about I reward you with a punch to your face?" Beast Boy retorted and managed to pull back his hand, preparing to send him all the way to his former home on the island.

"How did you like it?" he asked and Beast Boy followed his gaze to see that he was glancing at his formed fist – at the blood that was still on his glove.

"Let me show you instead!" Beast Boy growled, letting his fist fly forward, sending the grey changeling to the floor and the green Titan quickly pinned him to the floor, letting his fist collide once more with a cry of hatred.

But the one under him only shrugged it off with a sneer. "And how did that feel?" he asked and Beast Boy restrained himself for a moment as he realized that it –

"Feels good, doesn't it?" his other half finished the thought. "You probably think that you're not that weak anymore – that finally some people give you respect…"

The titan felt energy surging through his body – were it his words or his own punches that caused this feeling? He didn't know…but he wanted more and prepared to strike.

"That's part of you – that monster inside of you," the dark changeling muttered before surprising the other with a jab to the stomach, causing the grip to loosen before another jab sent the green boy falling backwards. "Too bad even with that monster you're not really impressive."

The green titan managed to get up before charging head on and morphed mid-way into a lion, leaping at him. His other half evaded the leap as a frog before morphing into a horse, sending the tiger flying backwards with its hooves.

The tiger vanished to become a bull and once again charged head-on, managing to knock the horse back before it changed to a ram. The bull breathed deeply before charging again but the ram ducked low before slamming the heavy horns full-force into the larger animal, causing it to fall to its side. But it didn't take long for the green titan to get up again as a saber tooth tiger and bite onto the leg of the approaching ram. The leg began to grow in size and grew furrier before the ancient cat was hit away with the swipe of a bear paw. The green cat turned to human before trying to get up from the floor.

"Had enough yet?"

"With weak moves like that?" the green hero muttered and turned around to face the fake version of himself to see a grey gorilla lunging heavy arms at him and he jumped back before countering as an elephant, trying to push him back with its long tusks and trunk. The gorilla managed to get a hold of the trunk but the elephant was simply too heavy to be even moved and before getting impaled by its dangerous tusks, the gorilla became a T-Rex, swiping with its tail and knocking the elephant against the wall.

The elephant vanished, leaving a changeling lying on the floor as the large dinosaur charged and in the last moment, Beast Boy managed to jump away, causing the large reptile to hit the wall instead.

The green hero managed a chuckle. "Man, I always knew you didn't have much brain."

The other changeling emerged from behind the dust that had swirled up from the impact before he smirked. "For getting to make your little home explode with just a few of Slade's tiny bombs, it was still better than what he had in mind," he said, before casually dusting himself off to tick his other self off.

And it worked better than he had thought.

"What do you mean with that? Slade had the same bright idea as you – and it just shows what cowards you are!" he shouted the last part, angry that the grey figure even had the nerve to pretend that he hadn't had his butt kicked just now.

"If using more than enough explosives to destroy a simple school is a 'bright' idea then I must be a genius for making your tower blow up along with it."

The green changeling stared in shock as the words left his mouth. "What? Don't mess with me! That was Slade! He said he would destroy Terra's school! And he obviously managed to sneak into the tower before you!"  
"Slade? Don't make me laugh! You saw who had the trigger, didn't you? And it wasn't really hard to stop your stupid security system if you have a good set of teeth."

"Security? That was you? So…the destroyed Sladebots-"

"It was all me! A few scraps of metal were no big deal, at least to me. After that it was just about hiding the little bombs in good places and wait for your lousy friends to be present in the tower. Raven was the only one that was trouble since I'm connected with her dad but once I pressed the button…I hit 2 flies with one stone."

And suddenly images of the possible process of the simultaneous destruction of his home and Terra's school played in his mind and…he was once again too caught up with his own troubles until it was already too late.

But now he would make up for it!

In the blink of an eye, he had charged at his other self before leaping at him in wolf form. The grey changeling jumped out of the way before morphing into a panther and managing to bite the tail, causing a pathetic yelp to sound through the hall. Forcing the pain into the background, the wolf turned to a hummingbird, escaping the panther before diving back down as an eagle, letting the sharp claws scratch the face before an angry growl followed by a hard swipe caused the eagle to roll onto the floor.

The eagle turned to human and registered approaching footsteps before glancing upwards.

"And for the record, you're confusing coward with winner. I've managed to do the thing you tried so hard to do and you ended up dumped by the only girl that ever liked you from the beginning."

"So blowing up a whole school is making you a winner now – especially with Terra involved!?" the green changeling shouted angrily, not wanting to remember the destroyed school and that Terra's existence vanished with it.

"I made her remember…"

Green eyes stared flabbergasted back, not believing what he just heard. "W-what?"

"It surprised me that you didn't think of this but I guess you wanted her to remember you…as a hero so she still likes you. Pretty selfish in my opinion, but I guess everyone is in a way. But when all those good times don't seem to jog her memory, you turn to the bad ones – to the ones about Slade, to her betrayal. But when she still doesn't seem to remember anything, you turn to the only thing that everyone will remember – the thing they're most scared of."

And as if on cue, the image of a crying blonde-haired girl ran through his mind.

"And the thing Terra's most scared of is her powers."

That sentence was the last straw and Beast Boy let out an angry growl as he let his fist collide with the other's face before pulling back for another one that would definitely break his nose but the other blocked in time.

"I can't believe she blames herself for what happened…when all of her betrayal, petrification and her 'memory loss' is all your fault," he sneered, enjoying how easy it was to anger the changeling – to feed him with negative emotions.

"You don't know what you're saying. This was Slade who did all this!"

Beast Boy could deny it in front of all the others…but not in front of himself.

"Did you forget who you're talking to? I know exactly whose fault it was. You know why she wanted to go out on that date with you?"

And as an answer he heard her voice in his head.

"…of all the things I could do tonight, I realized that the only thing I wanted to do was spend time with you…"

"She liked you and she wanted to change. And what did you do?"

And for a moment the green changeling felt himself speechless – choking as his own voice answered this time.

"Slade was right! You don't have any friends!"

He tried to fight…but he simply couldn't block his hearing or the tears that filled his eyes.

"That's right! Terra always had the right intentions and even tried to tell you…and instead you pushed her away. It wasn't Slade who hurt her – it was you! You turned her against your own friends and forced her to forget who she was!"

Beast Boy lowered his eyes as Slade's voice only confirmed his statement and he wished he would be the one with memory loss instead.

"I'm not the one hurting her. You are."


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Victory or Breakdown?

As much as he had tried to deny Slade's words that night in the funhouse, his other self's words – his own words - seemed to confirm that statement.

"And with those words you have not only broken the trust of Terra but also the trust of your team. You could have stopped her from turning to Slade's side – even if it was by fighting her but all you did was sulk like a little baby as she just walked away with one of your biggest enemies," the grey changeling continued and the other loosened the fist from the emotional pressure he was put under.

"But…she changed. She turned good again…she turned to a titan again," he murmured, not able to hide the emotional pain that was visible in his expression.

"Since when was she a titan? You know better that she was only a titan because she had to spy on you. She was Slade's apprentice even while living with you."

"She changed! She broke away from Slade!" Beast Boy cried, not letting more of his words get into his head.

"I think Slade made it clear to you that she didn't exactly break away from him…but I have to admit that she did change – a lot even. I mean who would want to see the only person that had broken their trust?"

The green changeling growled angrily. "She did this to protect us."

"Protect you? That would be what you think but I have another, much more logical reason as to why she would purposefully avoid you."

He stared into the other's eyes to make sure his message would reach the other. "She simply doesn't see you the same way anymore. Ever since you said those words to her she knew you would always bear a little suspicion and anger towards her."

The grey changeling was pleased to witness how the sadness in his eyes completely vanished in almost an instant to be replaced by a look of pure rage.

"Shut up!" the green changeling shouted, pulling his fist back to punch him but all that was needed was a tilt of the head to evade.

"Face it! Terra doesn't like you anymore!"

An animal like growl escaped the hero before knocking the other back with a head-butt and lunging himself at the fallen boy. He pinned the boy down onto the floor and he was too blinded by rage to see that he was in the process of taking 'his own' life as his hands wrapped around his throat, each moment getting tighter.

But that didn't faze his other self much – the green changeling was already too weak. He let his hand slip into the other's belt before taking out a yellow device.

Yet, Beast Boy didn't care – he was too focused on his hands until he heard his voice.

"Forget about the meeting, Rita! I'm glad I left you guys," the dark changeling muttered and Beast Boy immediately let go of the throat to grab the device – a mistake that caused him to end up on the floor as a fist smashed into his face.

The green changeling wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before lashing out once again.

"Too slow," his other self muttered before he simply crushed the communicator in his hand and he chuckled, seeing the shocked expression of his other half. "Hey, at least Robin isn't there to get mad at you."

The green changeling aimed for the sneer on his face only for a palm to block it.

"Is that the best you can do?" Trigon's spawn asked amused and it took less than a second for the fist in his palm to give out a painful cracking sound followed by a scream of the owner of the now broken wrist. "And I thought you learned from our last fight. I guess you're even weaker than I thought," the grey changeling said as he leaned down to the other.

"Think…again," Beast Boy said with closed eyes and it took less than a few seconds for the Beast to take charge and send the grey changeling crashing into the wall.

This was the first time he got seriously hurt…and in a way, he almost enjoyed it – at least now things won't be so boring and slowly, the dark boy got back onto his feet.

"The fact that you need to get emotionally riled up to become the Beast doesn't make you any stronger – unlike me," he smirked and evaded the Beast's next attack and managed a hit onto the green monster's back after his own transformation.

The green beast turned around, letting the large hands swing with his turn but the grey animal ducked out of the way before leaping at the other, knocking him to the floor. The grey monster swung his hands downwards but the other avoided collision as he let his jaws close on the large hand, causing an angered and pained growl to escape from the other.

Before letting the jaws close any tighter, the grey beast let his other fist collide with the face, the force sending the beast against the control box of the warehouse, causing sparks to fly from it. The blue sparks impaled the animal as pained howling filled the hall for a moment before the animal dropped to the floor.

Seeing the green creature unmoving, the grey monster leaped at it, preparing to tear it apart. Sensing his enemy close by, suddenly the unmoving creature sprung to life and managed a hit that was strong enough to send the grey creature flying backwards. Letting out a pained cry, the green monster slowly retreated into the boy once it was sure the beast wouldn't attack anymore.

Beast Boy narrowed his eyes, trying to ignore the pain of his injured back that had received a pretty nasty gash before he slowly made his way over to the other side of the hall where his other half lied. The green changeling slowly leaned over to his other self and saw with relief that he was either unconscious or dead by the way his eyes were closed.

He turned away reluctantly with a smile, deciding to restrain the menace until some of the honorary titans would arrive with a way to remove him from existence.

His smile turned to a cry of surprise as something suddenly pulled him roughly from behind and sending him onto the floor. His hands immediately shot up to his throat – to the long, cold object wrapping tightly around it like a snake. The green changeling snapped his eyes open to see what it was that held him captive and his eyes widened when he saw that it was indeed a grey snake.

"H-How-"

The reptile cut him off as it coiled further, covering his arms that were still clinging to the part of the animal that slung over his throat, increasing the pressure of his grip. The green changeling loosened his grip by relaxing his fingers and trying to push or wriggle his hands out of the vice-grip but to no avail.

Seeing that his arms were useless (and not to mention that it was too painful since one of his wrists was broken), Beast Boy tried to gain help from his legs but his movement was restricted as well as more scales covered now his feet, slowly moving further upwards covering legs and stomach as well.

His legs soon lost their ability to move along with pretty much every other part of his body, leaving him at the complete mercy of his other half. The snake's head came into his field of vision, admiring its work all the while coiling a bit further.

How he would enjoy watching him suffer!

The titan made sure to stare at the snake with all the hatred he could muster before the lack of air blurred his vision.

If only looks could kill…

He squeezed his eyes shut; trying to think of a way out of this deadly situation…but even thinking was not easy anymore as he gradually felt himself dozing off. And as his mind wandered off into distant memories of when his team and Terra were still around, his voice once again reached his ears, faint but still audible.

"…sometimes it's best to be a slow, tiny turtle…"

Tiny!

That word sent a sudden surge of energy through him and before his body went completely limp, Beast Boy managed to morph into one of the smaller animals and with his remaining strength curled himself into a ball.

The snake immediately let out a painful hiss before retreating and turning back into the dark titan. Raising a curious eyebrow, the grey changeling looked over to the animal on the floor that uncurled and saw with surprise that what had prevented him from squeezing the titan like a lemon was a small, spiky hedgehog!

The hedgehog vanished to become a panting changeling, sprawled on the floor and savoring the few moments air finally managed to fill his lungs again.

"Not bad for someone who fills his brain with video games, comics and TV shows," Beast Boy heard his own voice echo through the hall and the green changeling slowly tried to get up.

Suddenly he felt a hand grab him by the arm and pull him roughly up and the green changeling let his fist lash out and a smirk formed on his face, seeing it connect with the other's jaw.

"But not good enough," the voice spoke, the dark titan having already recovered from the weak hit and countering to the other's stomach, causing him to trip forward with a pained groan.

Dizziness spread into the hero's head and once again he shut his eyes before swinging his fist again, only to hit air. His eyes snapped open when he felt claws tearing at him, causing him to topple backwards.

How could he defeat him – how could he defeat someone who is so much stronger than him and even knows how to counter his moves?

How could he have thought he stood any chance against himself?

How…could he do this all alone?

His thoughts drifted back to his friends but all he felt now was…regret and sadness but he refused to cry – crying wouldn't bring them back.

With a strained grunt, the changeling managed to get back on shaky legs but landed onto his knees shortly after. That fight had gotten more out of him than he thought.

His eyes wandered across the hall as the lights kept flickering on and off before his eyes rested on an object not far from him. Unfortunately, before he could form a thought on what to do with it, heavy footsteps approached him and he turned his head to see a grey version of the Beast leaping with outstretched claws at him – claws aimed to rip him to shreds.

In an act of pure desperation, Beast Boy managed to grab the object and held it in front of him before a scream of pain and ripping sounds filled the hall and he felt himself being catapulted against the wall.

The force was so strong that for a moment, he felt his insides rocking from the sheer impact and the air leaving his body before he dropped to the floor.

The pain cruising through him caused the youngest member of the titans to twist to the side and then twist some more to somehow relieve himself of the pain. His eyes slowly opened and for a moment, he literally saw dark before the blurred image of light entered his eyes. And then it was dark again before light appeared again, this time in sharper focus until he realized that he was staring at the ceiling of the warehouse.

Beast Boy slowly rolled to the side, the pain from his wounds forcing him to shut his eyes for a bit longer. After being sure he could get up, he attempted to do so slowly, gaining help mainly from his healthy hand until he stood on shaky legs. He let his eyes wander around the warehouse, getting ready in case his other self might still be around somewhere but all that greeted him was silence…and the notebook lying face down further in the front. Curiosity spread in him and he approached the object and he was surprised to see the cover of the book was covered with large slash marks. He picked up the book and let his eyes wander once more around the warehouse and a smirk spread across his face, seeing no sign of his other self.

He had finally beaten him!

With that wonderful thought spinning in his mind, he suddenly broke out in laughter as he slowly limped out of the warehouse.

And the only witness to his victory…was a security camera silently having recorded the events from a corner of the warehouse.


End file.
